Holding On
by Hart Matters
Summary: It's a year before college and everyone is holding onto something: friends, memories, their time left in high school. Lucas might be holding on to everything he's got: girlfriend Riley Matthews, best friends Zay, Smackle, and Farkle, his star football position. So why does the ever aloof Maya Hart just want to let go? [AU] Starts off Rilucas, eventual Lucaya! **Based on a movie.
1. Chapter 1

**Genre** : AU: Romance/Angst  
 **Rating:** High T for the majority; Chapters that contain adult themed content will be given a higher rating in the beginning of the chapter.  
 **Notes:** **Riley may seem a little out of character for right now, but she'll even out in the later chapters. Angst will most likely happen in later chapters. This will later be up on , i'll provide a link for when it is available This does start off Rilucas but will eventually be Lucaya. Promise! This is also based off of a movie that I will not name only because I don't want the ending to be ruined if you care about spoilers. But know that the plot is not mine! If you can recognize the movie, you get a dozen Krispy Kreme Donuts :)

* * *

 _Lucas exhaled slowly, his breath leaving physical evidence that it was there in the cold night air. He blew into the palms of his hands before rubbing them together, trying to get warm. Up here, the only company he had was the sound of his heart beat ringing in his ears. Lucas took a deep breath and closed his eyes, trying to bring himself to a place of calmness. Slowly, he shuffled his feet, taking it only half an inch at a time. Suddenly he stopped and opened his eyes, looking straight ahead of him at complete darkness._

 _The sound of cars zooming by filled the night air, but they didn't reach his ears._

* * *

"Thanks for breakfast, Mom." Lucas stood up from the dining table, pushing his chair back against the wooden floor in the process. He picked up his plate as well as his mother's and brought them both to the sink. He ran the tap for just a few seconds, just enough to soak the dishes in water. From her place still at the table, Lucas' mom smiled as she watched her son, calling out to him as he reached for his keys on the kitchen counter. "Will you be home in time for supper today?" Lucas paused at the door to turn around and answer, "Probably not. Most likely going to hang out with Riles and everyone." Before Mrs. Friar could say anything else, Lucas was out the door, a gentle slam of the door resounding through the house.

The woman in her mid 40s rose from the table and made her way to the sink, deciding to finish cleaning up before heading off to work. As she scrubbed her crumbs off of the plates, she felt a smooch placed upon her cheek. She smiled fondly at her son, only a couple inches taller than her, and grabbed his hand on her shoulder in a loving maternal squeeze. "Sorry, mom. Forgot. Have a good day at work, love ya'!"

Lucas, again, was out the door and headed to his hand-me-down 1967 Chevrolet C/K pick up truck that he inherited from his grandfather. Before he got into the driver seat, he squatted down by the front tire to inspect it, pressing a thumb against the rubber to check the air pressure. Once he deemed that it was acceptable, he tossed his backpack into the bed of the truck and climbed into the driver's seat.

The drive was only about 3 minutes, Lucas could have easily walked to school, but he and the gang planned to head over to The Spot later in the evening. As he pulled up along the sidewalk across from the old stone-bricked high school, a tall and slim brunette ran up to the driver's side to greet him. Tall enough, she easily lifted her chin to reach Lucas' cheek, placing a very gentle kiss upon his tan skin. He returned the peck, turned the old truck's ignition off and, rolled up the driver's seat window. He hopped out of the car, slammed the door shut and reached an arm to wrap around the girl, the other hand reaching into the bed of the truck to fetch his backpack.

"Hey." Lucas laced his fingers with his girlfriend's over her shoulder and guided the both of them to the front doors of John Quincy Addams High School.

"Hi," Riley Matthews looked over at her boyfriend with a wide grin on her face. "You didn't get my text last night?" They continued to walk directly over to her locker, just at the end of the hallway.

Lucas leaned against some nearby lockers as he waited for Riley to place her unneeded texts and notebooks into her own, "No, sorry. I fell asleep. I was really tired when I got home from football practice. Coach has got me and a couple guys on the team practicing longer hours. I didn't even get to stop by the pet clinic." Riley shut her yellow painted locker and sighed, readjusting the strap of her backpack on her shoulder. "Well, that's okay. I'm glad that you're really working hard. Your mom told me that a Harvard scouter's visiting to look at some potential candidates for a scholarship. I'm sure the clinic will be fine without you for a couple of quarters." She placed a baby pink manicured hand on his chest reassuringly. Lucas gave a lopsided smile and nodded, pushing himself off of the lockers.

"I have journalism first period, so I'll see you in homeroom after your Calc class, right?" Riley started to walk backwards, clumsy as ever as she nearly tripped over her own shoelaces. Lucas couldn't help but smirk when she caught herself and looked around to see if anyone had seen her struggle. "Yeah. Your dad's our homeroom, right?"

As if on queue, a brown short-haired man somewhere in his 40s walked down the hallway. "That's Mr. Matthews to you, Friar." He paused to stand midway between his daughter and her boyfriend. Lucas nodded his head politely, grasping the adjustable straps of his backpack. "Yes, Mr. Matthews, Sir."

The bell rang, it's shrill noise resounding in the hallways. Like ants, students scrambled into their first class of the school year. Riley waited until her father went into his own classroom to run back up to Lucas and smash her lips against his. Lucas, taken by surprise, had his backpack straps still grasped in his hands. "I'll see you later, Charming!" She took a couple steps back and then turned on her heel. Lucas called to her retreating form, "Later, Princess."

* * *

Lucas was in Calculus class, hunched over his desk as his eyes were trained on the whiteboard at the front of class, his right hand frantically writing the notes displayed all the while keeping up with what the teacher was saying. To his right, a lankily built brown haired teen age boy was leaned back in his chair, taking notes in a much more calm fashion than Lucas. The boy paused in his writings, raising a brow as he looked to Lucas, "Dude, calm down. You know you could copy from my notes."

It was hard for Lucas to tear his eyes away from the whiteboard. Even as he turned his head, his vision lingered on the messy slanted handwriting on the dry-erase board, scribbling in his notebook even after he finally gave his attention to the other boy. "Yeah, I know Farkle. But I'm not going to have much time for that this semester. I have football practice, the games, helping out at the clinic, Riley…. Plus, it's better to just soak in all the information now, right?" Farkle raised a skeptical brow again at Lucas as the dirty blonde gave him a quick smile and went right back to work on his notes. "I guess you're right," Farkle sat up in his chair and resumed his own note taking. "I kind of forgot that different people have different ways of retaining information." Beside him, Lucas scoffed playfully, "Yeah, not everyone's a genius like you Farkle."

Lucas dropped his pencil when their teacher paused to shuffle through an arrangement of papers on his desk. He stretched his arms over his head, peering over at Farkle. "Wait, what are you doing in this class, I thought you took it last year?" Farkle nodded with a small smirk on his lips. "Yeah, I did. I'm TA for Mr. Morrison." Lucas turned at his waist, placing his his left elbow on his desk, the other on the back of his chair. "So what does he have you do?" Farkle sighed and reached down into his backpack, pulling out a stack of papers. "I make copies, I help grade papers, and I take notes for him in case anyone is out sick and misses the lecture."

Lucas' brow raised, a smug look upon his face, "So… What you're saying is that you're willing to help out your best friend, Lucas Friar, during his last year of high school? Thanks, bud!"

Farkle shot him a glare. "What happened to the Lucas that wanted to be self-dependent and do things on his own just a minute ago?"

Lucas gave a small chuckle and shook his head, going back to read over his notes. "I was kidding, Minkus. Don't get your panties in a bunch."

"Oh." Farkle's glare was soon replaced with a smile, proud of his friend.

"No, but really, you think you can help a guy out?"

Farkle rolled his eyes.

* * *

"I'll see you tomorrow, class." Lucas' calculus teacher stood by the door, seeing each of his students out. Lucas gave a very courteous nod on his way out while Farkle simply raised his hand as a goodbye, following Lucas through the door. Across their classroom stood Riley and another female, a darker brunette coming up to just under Riley's eyes. The shorter girl's eyes lit up when she saw Farkle pop out form behind the tall Lucas Friar. "Minkus!"

"Smackle," Farkle tossed an arm around Smackle's shoulders, pressing his lips to the side of his girlfriend's head, nose in her hair. "How was Journalism with Riley?" Smackle tilted her head, looking up at Farkle with a smile on her rosy painted lips. "It was fine. We have an assignment due by the end of the week, quite easy. Isn't that right, Riley?"

Riley gave Smackle a crooked smile that looked somewhere between an actual smile and a frown, her brows furrowed and scrunched up on her forehead. "Yeah.. Quite." Riley shook her head and chuckled, lacing her fingers with Lucas as they all headed down the hall towards the back of the building.

"Hi, daddy!" Riley skipped into her father's classroom, tugging her boyfriend behind her. Lucas, who seemed embarrassed and was trying to save face in front of his girlfriend's father, nodded his head and waved with his free hand to his homeroom teacher. "Mr. Matthews." Farkle gave a smile to the man and followed his two friends to the first couple of rows of desks in the front. Smackle stayed by the door, waving a goodbye to her friends.

Cory paused his conversation with a student to look over at the trio's direction. "Hi, sweetie. Minkus. Friar." He acknowledged the two boys, sending the latter a very stern look seeing the public display of affection with his daughter before him. As they sat and unlatched themselves from one another, he gave them an over the top smile and continued on with the conversation between him and a long blonde haired girl. "Anyway, how was your summer, Maya?" Maya looked up at her history teacher, holding her books down by her thigh as she shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, well you know. I'm still living." Cory gave a small chuckle as he turned around to erase his writings from the chalkboard. "Ha! Well, I'm real happy to hear that. I'm glad you were able to make it to class at least once this semester." Cory turned back around, looking at the very short girl with his brows raised, as if expecting her to give a witty retort back. Maya gave a bright smile, most likely oozing with sarcasm, as was her voice as she spoke, "I guess miracles can happen, huh Matthews?" She walked towards the door, meeting up with Smackle to go to their own homeroom together. "Who knows," she continued, her voice traveling as she walked out, "Maybe I'll actually graduate this year, too!"

The school bell rang once again, signaling the start of homeroom. Bodies rushed into the classroom's door as Cory waited with his wrist watch in front of him, counting until the very last second of the minute, "Four, three, two… one." He shut the door and spun on his heel, a huge grin upon his face, his fists in front of him in an excited clench. "Welcome back to school seniors! I'm Mr. Matthews," he walked in front of his desk and then sat on top of it, legs crossed at the ankles in front of him. "I'm sure I'll be seeing most of you in my history class. I'm also sure you guys are really excited to just get this last year over with, so let's just get through the last days of your high school career without me issuing out detentions, alright?" The class agreed with a couple of laughs and soon the morning announcements came on over the PA system.

"Daddy," Riley called out to Cory with her hands folded neatly on her desk. "I'll probably be home late tonight. We're all going to head out to the Spot after school." Cory stared at the group of friends. He wanted to scold and lecture them about going to such a place at night, but he knew that doing so would make him a hypocrite. His stare lingered on Lucas for a moment before he sighed loudly and nodded his head. "Alright. You guys be safe."

Riley blinked her eyes twice very slowly in disbelief. "Wait, really, dad?" Both Lucas and Farkle had the same looks on their faces.

Cory nodded and placed one hand on his daughter's shoulder, the other on Lucas'. "Yeah. It's your senior year. I trust you guys," Cory's grip on Lucas' shoulder tightened ever so slightly. "And I trust you guys to not do anything stupid. You hear me?" Lucas gulped, swallowing the lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. "Yes sir."

"Thanks, dad. Don't wait up too late!" Riley tiled her head to the side, a smile upon her lips. Farkle and Lucas looked at each other, small chuckles escaping them. Riley was trying to act rebellious again, but everyone knew, including Riley—especially Riley—, that she'd be back before her own curfew that was set at 11:00. Cory gave a reassuring pat on his daughter's shoulder and began to walk towards his desk. "Oh, honey, I won't. Don't worry."

The bell rang a couple of minutes later. Cory was writing the next class' agenda on the blackboard while Riley, Lucas, and Farkle gathered their things to leave. Lucas had one arm around Riley's shoulders as the two of them followed Farkle out the door. Right as they exited the door, Cory called out to them, "Hey, kids!" They stopped and turned on their heels, finding that Cory had left his notes on the board to meet them where they stood. "Before I forget, maybe you guys can bring Maya with you tonight?"

Riley's brow raised, a little surprised that her dad had suggested such a thing. "Maya Hart?" She repeated. Cory pursed his lips and nodded his head. "You mean Maya-I-D-G-A-F-Hart?" Cory crossed his arms over his chest. "Riley," he began with a stern voice, "It's not nice to judge people." Riley mimicked her father, crossing her own arms. "Dad, I've tried so many times to talk to her. She doesn't want any of it. All she does is make some cruel joke, roll her eyes, and then walk away!" Lucas looked between his girlfriend and their teacher awkwardly. What was he supposed to do?

Farkle was the one to speak up, "All due respect sir, she's right. Maya isn't exactly the friendliest person in the school."

Cory nodded his head once more and sighed, "She can be tough, I know. But don't give up on her. Everyone needs some friends. It's your senior year of high school, guys." He repeated again for emphasis, "Enjoy it. And enjoy it with people you never thought you would."

Farkle, Riley, and Lucas looked between each other in that moment, as if trying to decide if it was a good idea. "Now go," Cory brought the attention back to himself. "The bell's gonna ring in three minutes and I doubt any of you want to be late to the Spot tonight because of detention."

The group of three turned away from their teacher and made their way down the hall. Lucas and Farkle walked Riley to her next class. "Look," Riley sighed, dropping her shoulders as if to admit defeat. "Everyone in school usually shows up to the Spot for the first week anyway. She'll probably be going, too. So we'll just ask her if she wants to come with us. But if this doesn't work, we tried, right?" The boys nodded their heads in agreement. "Great!" Riley leaned up and pressed another kiss on Lucas' cheek and gave Farkle a hug. "I'll see you guys later!"

Lucas made his way to the second floor of the school, rushing into the first door on the left to the chemistry lab. All eyes were on him as he bounded in through the door, panting to catch his breath just when the bell rang. "Name?" Lucas turned his head to his right towards the source of the voice. A blonde woman in her early thirties was looking over her list before she looked directly at Lucas as he closed the door behind him. "Uh.. Friar, ma'am. Lucas Friar." With a red inked pen, she marked him as present. "Well Friar Lucas, go ahead and take your seat."

"Yes Ma'am." Lucas shrugged his backpack off of his shoulders and placed it on the empty stool beside him. He was about to grab his notebook form his backpack when the classroom door creaked open. Maya Hart, the girl from homeroom shuffled her feet towards the teacher's desk. She held out a white paper folded in two to which the woman grabbed with her red painted nails. The teacher scanned it and gave Maya a sort of smile. "Alright, Miss Hart. Why don't you go and take a seat next to Lucas over there." Maya whipped her head towards Lucas, blonde hair messily falling over her shoulder, "Thanks, Krueger."

Lucas watched as Maya neared him, the click-clack of her healed booties getting louder with each step she took towards him. He seemed wary as she looked down at the stool that was occupied by his bag. Her blue eyes met his with a raised brow. "You mind?" Lucas quickly grabbed his backpack and set it down on the ground. The teen age girl placed her own backpack on the tabletop in front of them and slid into the seat, tucking her black circle skirt underneath her.

He sat stiff, straight-backed. Every so often, his eyes would glance over to the small girl to his right. He examined her, as if she was a lion out in the wild. The teacher, Ms. Krueger he assumed, was rambling on about safety precautions that needed to be taken in the lab. He took another glance at Maya, but this time he was met with a girl who was very much aware that he was looking at her. She had a serious look on her, almost as if she were glaring at him. Soon, however, the straight-lined lips on her face twisted into a smirk. "Jeez, I know I'm super fun to look at and all, but could you not stare at me like that?"

Lucas' jaw slacked, his mouth slightly open. How long had she known he was stealing glances at her? She probably thought he was some creep. "Also," Maya brought him back from his thoughts, "You can relax, cowboy. Don't be so tense, I'm not gonna bite you." She raised her hand up, "Scout's honor." With the same hand, she turned it towards herself to examine her nails, "…Unless you're into that."

The dirty blonde haired boy quickly shook his head, slumping his posture as if to hide from someone, or just to keep low. "What!? No! I have a girlfri—"

She cut him off, rolling her eyes. "Okay, seriously, dude? Calm down. I'm just making fun of you, of course you have a girlfriend." Maya tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and placed her chin on top of her backpack on the table.

"Alright," Ms. Krueger's voice was louder now, calling the attention of everyone in the class. "I'll be handing out a sheet of paper with a list of supplies. These supplies should be tucked away in drawers and cabinets by your tables which will be your work stations as of tomorrow when I will be randomly pairing you off into groups." She walked around the stations, handing each table one sheet of paper. "For today, your job is to make sure you have all the appropriate supplies. You and your partner will be responsible for them. If a beaker breaks, you'll be owing the lab $8 dollars. Science isn't cheap, guys."

The classroom broke its silence as students scrambled to make sure that everything on the list was accounted for. Lucas looked over the list while Maya stayed slumped over the table. When he tore his eyes away from the paper, he found Maya focused on blowing a lock of blonde hair away from her face. Lucas cleared his throat, placing the sheet between the two of them. "Uh, I can look in the cabinets if you don't mind looking in the drawers." Maya looked him up and down before she sat up and shrugged her shoulders, taking the piece of paper into her own hands. "Sure thing, Stretch."

It took them about 4 minutes to locate everything that they needed to. Ms. Krueger seemed to be in her own thoughts at her desk, scribbling things down in a notebook of hers and every so often looking up at the students who were just chatting away. Between Lucas and Maya was an awkward silence. She was looking at the ends of her hair while he was just sitting there, trying to think of a way to break the silence.

"So, did you really know I have a girlfriend?" Lucas tried for that question.

Maya dropped the ends of her hair and turned her wait towards him, something akin to a smirk on her lips. "Yeah, but even if I didn't it would have been a no brainer. Smiley Riley, right?"

"Uh," Lucas stuttered, "Well, Riley Matthews, yeah. How'd you know?" He turned his whole body towards her on the stool, his hands gripping his seat.

"You mean other than the fact she's latched onto you basically twenty four seven?" Maya chuckled softly and shrugged her shoulders. "You guys were voted Junior Prom Queen and King last year."

"Oh," Lucas smiled a little, remembering that they were indeed the 'couple of the school'. "I'm actually kind of surprised, you didn't peg me as—"

"—As the type to go to prom?" Maya turned in her chair, resting her elbows on the table now. "Well, I'm not. Prom is just some stupid gathering for a bunch of hormonal teenagers that know nothing about dancing. If the punch doesn't get spiked, someone always sneaks booze in or people will bring their own flasks and hide them in their underwear. Prom Queen and King is just a popularity contest. But I do have friends that went." There was a small pause before she smiled over at him, her thick brows raised, "And before you say anything: Yes, I do have friends."

Lucas squinted his eyes at Maya, trying to figure out what she was about. "Well, what about Senior Ball, not going to that either?"

Maya rolled her eyes and shook her head, almost as if she were disgusted he would ask a question. "Please, you're killing me here!"

"But, its your last year of high school."

"Yeah, but Senior Ball is really the same thing. Except the girls wear floor length dresses, the boys have hotel room keys in their pockets, and everyone's even more horny."

Lucas rubbed the back of his head. He couldn't really argue with her. As much as all of what she was describing was the stereotypical TV Senior Prom scenario, it was for the most part true. "Well, it is senior year. It's the last year you get to spend with your friends from high school. Next year, we'll all be going to college. Think about it, we're seniors. It's our last year to be on top of everyone. We basically run this school, so we should live it up!"

Maya gave a playful smirk, trying to hide her laugh behind it. "Well, I do like being on top…"

Lucas shook his head, trying to ignore what she had said. "Look, all I'm saying is that you should have fun your last year. Everyone's going to the Spot later tonight. My friends and I are probably going to leave around 6:30 right after my football practice." He watched as Maya's expression twisted into a look of consideration. He continued on when she didn't say anything, "You can come with us if you want?"

Maya looked at him as she considered the offer, biting on her lower lip in thought. Right as she opened her mouth to say something, the bell rang. Startled, she nearly jumped out of her chair. Once she regained her composure, she looked back at Lucas who hadn't moved an inch, waiting for her response. "Alright, I'll check my schedule."

Lucas smiled brightly at her, grabbing his backpack from the floor and hopping out of his seat. "Great!"

Just as he was about to leave, Maya called out to him. "Hey, cowboy!"

Lucas turned around, pointing at himself. "Me?"

"Yeah, yeah." Maya grabbed her bag and took a couple steps towards him, holding her hand out. "Give me your phone." Lucas looked at her hand, a bit skeptical. "Relax, I won't steal it." She rolled her eyes and waved her open hand at him, still waiting for him to give her his phone. Lucas fished it out of his front pocket and placed it in her small hand. She swiped the bar to the right to unlock the phone and held it out to him so that he could input his passcode. Once he did, she put in her number, sent herself a text, and then saved her number into his phone. When he looked at the name she had saved herself under in his contacts, he looked at her as if she had grown a second head. "Maya H. AKA The Coolest Person You'll Ever Meet?" He read out loud.

"Yeah, it's kinda' long, but what can I say, it's true!" Maya grabbed her own phone from her back pocket when it vibrated to notify her of a new text. "Now I have your number and you have mine. I'll let you know if I can go tonight."

Lucas nodded his head slowly and placed his phone back into his pocket. "Okay, cool, but it's only fair that you save my number as "Lucas Friar, best person in the world."

"Keep dreaming!" Maya laughed and was already on her way out.

Lucas followed her just outside of the classroom door, cupping his hands over his mouth as he called out to remind her, "6:30 in front of the school!"

Without turning around, Maya continued walking down the hallway, raising her hand and giving him a thumbs up to let him know that she heard him.

 **Ending Notes:** This story is going to follow Lucas around more than anything, though we will see things from Maya's end as well. I feel like there are a ton of fan fictions told in the perspective that favors Maya, so I figured I'd try my hand at this. Let me know what you guy thing. :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Important notes at the end.  
**

* * *

 **CHAPTER 2.**

Riley slid her tray along as she moved forward in the cafeteria line. Behind her was Lucas with his own tray. She looked to him as the cafeteria lady placed a paper bowl of fruit on her tray. "So Smackle is actually friends with Maya?"Riley asked. Lucas nodded his head, about to tell Riley that he had already invited Maya to come with them to the Spot, but the brunette teenager went on. "So we could probably ask Smackle to invite her to come along with us tonight!" By now, both of them were at the end of the cafeteria line at the register. Riley paid and then Lucas. "Oh, you know, actually I alrea—" Lucas turned from the register with his full tray and looked around for Riley when he saw that she was no longer there. "Riles?"

"Over here!"

Lucas turned his head in the direction of the voice, finding that Riley had picked out a table close the the center of the cafeteria. He made his way over and sat down with Riley, Farkle, Smackle, and another sepia-skin-toned boy. Lucas stretched out his right arm, giving the boy a high five and tugging him close to his chest, giving a gentle pat on his back. "Zay! How you dealing with classes so far?" Zay sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know man. I have no idea what Ms. Burgess says. It goes one ear and out the other, but man," He paused momentarily and raised his brows, "She is mighty fine to look at."

Riley rolled her eyes. Farkle laughed slightly along side with Lucas and Smackle tilted her head in confusion. "Zay, it's very important that you understand what she is teaching. It may be our last year here, but our grades still matter. If you like, I could help you understand the material." Smackle smiled at the boy who sat across from her who gave her a genuine smile right back. "Thanks, doll. All jokes aside, I'm just not that great at understanding shakespeare."

"Zay," Smackle frowned slightly, placing a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I know you have feelings for me, but please. I am with Farkle and that will never change." Farkle then put his arm around Smackle and pulled her closer to him as if to humor her. "Yeah Zay. This babe's mine get your own." Smackle smiled brightly at her boyfriend, placing a loving hand on top of his.

Riley watched her two friends with giddy excitement, she absolutely loved seeing the two of them affectionate. It was like watching two little kindergarteners hold hands for the first time. "Oh, yeah!" Riley pointed her fork over in Smackle's direction, "You're friends with Maya Hart, right?" Smakle nodded and attended to her home-brought peanut butter jelly sandwich, "Yes, that is correct."

"Well, I was wondering if you could ask her if she wanted to—"

Lucas spoke up now, putting down a fry that he was about to stuff into his mouth, covered in both ketchup and mayonnaise. "—Hey, actually. I have her in my chem class and I invited her to come with." After he finished, he popped the fry into his mouth. Riley clapped her hands together, excited. "Oh, good! What did she say?" Lucas finished chewing and took a sip of his soda. "Mmm, well she said she'd get back to me. Grabbed her number and told her we'd be with out front after my football practice."

Smackle nodded her head enthusiastically, "I do hope she comes. I don't think that she's really been out since her dad left her."

The table fell quiet, all eyes darting towards her dark haired, glasses-wearing teen who had just blurted out some pretty personal information. "Oh…. I probably should not have said that. Too much?"

In unison, the friends around the table nodded, "Too much."

* * *

The last bell of the day rang and students flooded out of their respective classrooms, going to their lockers. Sounds of the metal doors opening and closing rang in Lucas' ears. He was at his own locker, grabbing his football equipment that he had left in his locker the night before after practice. He threw the sports bag's strap over his shoulder and shut his locker.

"So, I'll see you after practice?"

The voice behind him came from none other that Riley who had a binder in her arms labeled "Newspaper Club". Lucas nodded his head while Riley leaned in to press a peck against his cheek. "Okay, great. Newspaper club ends around 6, so I'll be waiting with Farkle, and Zay by the field."

"Alright, I'll see you guys then." Lucas gave his girlfriend's hand a loving squeeze before she turned on her heel and made her way down the hall.

Lucas was on his way over to the locker rooms when he caught sight of Smackle standing over a blonde girl, bent down at her locker. As the neared them, he overheard their conversation.

"Maya, I'm so sorry, I did not mean for that to come out." Smackle was apologizing profusely, waiting for Maya to finish whatever she was attending to in her locker. Without looking up at her dark-haired friend, Maya replied, "Don't worry about it, Iz. It wasn't something I was trying to hide." Smackle furrowed her brows and nervously played with a ring on her middle finger. "Yes, but I have learned that some things are not mine to tell. I am still sorry." Maya finally stood up from her locker, a tool-box looking case. She slung her bag over one shoulder and placed a hand on Smackle, one that Smackle did not look at with question. This often didn't happen unless it was with Farkle.

Lucas then approached them and pretended he had heard nothing. He stood between the two females and gave them both a smile. He wanted to ask Maya about her dad, if she was okay, but he knew it wasn't his place to ask. If Maya wanted to tell him, then she would on her own. Lucas wasn't about to pry into a girl's private life, especially one he had just met. He looked towards Maya and gripped the straps of his backpack, "Hey, so, we'll see you later maybe?"

Maya gave him a smirk and a raise of her brow as she shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe."

Smackle shifted her eyes between the two, watching their exchange and waiting patiently until their conversation seemed over. Lucas then looked over at her and placed a hand on her shoulder, which she looked at before looking back up at him. He drew his hand back, giving an apologetic smile. "You going to debate, Smackle?" Smackle nodded her head once, "Yes. It is the first meeting of the year and we will be practicing and brushing up on our knowledge and public speaking. Farkle will be there as well and afterwards we will meet up with Riley. I assume we will meet you and Zay later." She paused and looked back at Maya, "I really do hope you will be able to come with us."

Maya smiled and left the two of them standing there as she made her way towards the art rooms. "Like I said, maybe!"

* * *

Lucas looked through his football helmet, trying to predict where the football that was tossed to him high in the air would land. He shuffled his feet towards the right, getting directly underneath the ball. With his arms bent and hands in front of him, he caught the ball on bent knees. He always had to be in a ready position, whether it was to sprint for the end zone or dodge someone on the opposing team trying to take the ball from under him. For this drill however, the team was practicing dodging a blue mat that would be diving at their feet. Lucas caught the football, tucked it into his chest, and moved it into his left arm to cradle it securely. He was quick on his feet, dodging the blue mat that was thrown where he stood. He jogged it back to the end of the line where Zay took the ball, dressed in gear similar to Lucas', who threw it across the field to the next person on the other end of the field.

A numerous amount of drills later, Lucas and Zay headed off to the locker rooms to wash up and get ready for the drive to the Spot. The two of them gathered their stuff, hair damp and equipment messily stashed into their bags. Zay was on a bench, tying his shoe laces. "Hey man, so what's the deal with asking this girl to come with us?" Lucas shrugged his shoulders and stretched one arm above his head, placing deodorant on his underarm, underneath his baseball tee. "Yeah, not too sure. All I know is Riley's dad wants us to invite her." Zay nodded his head and worked on his other shoe's lace. "Let me guess, spewed some stuff about 'the last year of high school' again?" Lucas grabbed his bags and headed out of the locker room with Zay behind him. "Exactly that."

"Ain't she kind of weird?" Zay gave him a look, one that had a quizzical brow raised.

Lucas gave him the same look back as they continued to walk. "Is she?"

Zay shrugged his shoulders, dragging his own sports bag on the ground behind him, too lazy to actually pick it up. "I mean, a little. She kind of has this 'I'm too cool for school' thing going for her. Or like a, uh, 'High school kids are so dumb, I'm over this place' kinda vibe. Like, that one dude in that book about some disease."

Lucas laughed and offered a little bit of help to his friend, "The Plague?"

Zay snapped his fingers and pointed right at Lucas, "Yeah yeah, that one! Where the dude in the book gives up on trying to find the meaning of life and just kind of says 'Fuck it, yolo'?"

Again, Lucas gave a shrug of his shoulders. "An existentialist? I guess, I don't know."

In the distance, Lucas could see Riley standing up on the bleachers waving her arms way above her head to call his attention to her. Riley waved so frantically that she nearly lost her footing, bringing a smile to Lucas' face. He gave a wave back and both he and Zay made their way over to the rest of their friends. Hand in hand, the couples, excluding Zay, made their way over to Lucas' truck. Lucas checked the time on his phone and to see if he had gotten a text from Maya while everyone else worked out other arrangements.

Riley looked between the truck and a Jeep down the road. "Okay, since Lucas invited Maya, if she decides to come with us she can ride with Lucas and I. Is that okay with you, Zay?" Zay took out his keys from his bag, unlocking his Jeep from the remote on the key. "I get to ride with these two love birds? I mean, it's better than riding with Princess Cotton Candy Face and Prince Charming, so I think I can deal." Riley smiled at Zay with a little chuckle. She then looked back at Lucas, tilting her head in question. "Hey, did you hear from her?"

Lucas looked down at his phone again, watching as the clock turned to show '6:30'. "No, not yet. Let me call her." He scrolled down his contacts, finding Maya's name and pressed the button to call. Riley watched him, waiting to hear Maya's response.

There were three rings until she finally picked up. Maya grabbed her phone from her back pocket, putting it to her ear. "Hey, Charming, what's up?"

Lucas rolled his eyes on the other end. "Haha, very funny."

Maya chuckled to herself and placed the phone between her ear and shoulder as she closed her locker, still in the school building. "Yeah, well it's a work in progress. I'm trying to see which nickname's gonna suit you the most."

Lucas placed his bags into the bed of his truck, taking Riley's and placing in the back as well. "Good luck with that. Anyway, did you decide if you were gonna come?"

Maya at this point was on the second floor of the school, looking out a window that faced towards the front. She looked down at where Lucas had told her that his truck would be. She saw the group of friends waiting by the car. Riley was watching Lucas was such a longing in her eyes. Farkle and Smackle stood close together while talking to Zay who was animatedly talking about who knows what, hands in the air and wild expressions on his face. She clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth and bit on her lower lip. "Yeah, about that. I don't think so. I don't think I can make it tonight."

"Oh," Lucas made a face and shook his head, letting Riley know that Maya wouldn't be coming. Riley sighed with a pout. She gave a shrug of her shoulders as if to say, 'Well, we tried'. Lucas leaned against his truck, crossing one arm over his chest and tucked it under the arm that held his phone. "Sorry you can't make it. But hey, everyone's gonna be there until around midnight, maybe even later. If you change your mind, swing by later. We'll probably be there."

Maya watched from the window, still, as they split off into two. Smackle, Farkle, and Zay went down the road into a red jeep while Riley and Lucas piled into his truck. "Yeah… maybe."

Lucas shut his car door and put his key in the ignition, turning the engine on. "Alright, well then I'll see you tomorrow in Chem."

Maya looked down the hall towards the open Chem lab and gave a smile, one that wasn't particularly directed at anyone. "See you then, sunshine."

Lucas laughed and shook his head as he placed his seatbelt on. As if he had just realized there was no way she could see him through the phone, he let out an exaggerated sigh. "Not that one."

Maya laughed out loud, the sound of both her laugh and the click clacks of her shoes as she walked down the hall bouncing off the white walls of the school's hallway. "Yeah, I didn't think so either. Bye, Lucas."

"Bye." Lucas hung up and placed his phone on the seat between him and Riley. He looked at her with a smile, one that she returned. "Guess it's just us five tonight."

Riley shrugged her shoulders, her hair falling behind her. "Well maybe she can come with us next time. Is that so bad?"

Lucas didn't say anything. He simply shook his head with a slight smile and pulled out between two cars he was parked between, going towards the Spot.

The Spot was about 30 minutes away, about ten minutes away from the overpopulated towns and cities. By the time they had gotten there, the sun was low on the horizon. It was an old run down swimming pool. There were multiple bonfires in the area. Two were not actually in the pool, but close to the ledges, one on the south end and the other on the north. There was also one down in the center of the pool, the water long gone. There was even a stain on the pool's walls where the water used to be. Teenagers were scattered throughout the area, red cups in hands as they mindlessly danced to whatever hit song was playing on one of the cars radios.

Lucas and Zay pulled up their cars right by the fence that was used to separate the pool from the public. Lucas hopped over the fence first, followed by Zay. Farkle stayed on the other side to help Smackle and Riley up. First was Smackle. He squatted low and laced his fingers together so that she could use it as a stepping aid. Smackle placed her foot in his hands and Farkle boosted her up on the fence. He did the same thing with Riley. On the other side, Zay and Lucas helped the two girls down. Farkle hopped over the fence with little struggle as if he had been doing this for years.

"Woo!" Riley took Lucas' hand and lifted it above her head, twirling underneath their joined hands. "Can you guys believe it?" Smackle watched her friend with a smile while Zay and Farkle went towards one of the kegs lined up on the other end of the pool. With Riley's hand still holding on to Lucas', her free hand grasped Smackle and she pulled the two of her friends closer to the fire. "This is our last year of high school. We started at the very bottom of the high school ladder and now we are on top!"

Zay and Farkle came back with drinks in their hands. They handed them to Riley and Smackle, both of which graciously accepted. Riley took one sip of her red cup and started to dance, Smackle mimicking her and dancing just as awkwardly right beside her. Lucas, Farkle, and Zay just watched them.

Zay had taken the liberty of taking a bag of chips from the food that was supplied and was cradling it in one of his arms as his hand dug into the bag to reach for some of the chips. "So," He paused pulling his hand out and then tilting the bag to the other boys. "You guys ready for college?"

Farkle nodded and took some chips and stuffed a couple into his mouth. "Yeah, I'm really excited to start at NYU. I wonder if Lucas and I will see each other at NYU, after all we're both Business Majors, right?"

Lucas pursed his lips into a thin line, looking between the two of them. He nodded his head then, but it was as if he were trying to convince himself. If Lucas was being honest, he wasn't really sure how he felt about majoring in business. It definitely wasn't his first choice. "Uh, yeah. But don't count on it much. I do have football."

Zay nodded and pointed the bag of chips at Lucas. "Oh, yeah. Don't you got that football scholarship?" Lucas shook his head and shrugged a shoulder. He grabbed some chips from the bag and just kept them in his hand as he spoke. "Well, a scout's actually coming to watch a couple of us play. You know about this Zay."

Zay laughed and shrugged his shoulders with exaggeration, a chip in hand. "Well, yeah. But I have another scholarship lined up for Berklee." Farkle pointed a finger at Zay and nodded, "That's right! You're going to Berklee College of Music over in Boston, yeah?" Zay gave a very smug nod. "Yup, Music Production. Watch out for me in the future boys, I'll be producing songs for people like The Weeknd, Kendrick, Bieber, and Adele."

Lucas gave a chuckle, "How do you go from The Weeknd to Adele?" Zay smiled and placed a hand on Lucas's shoulder and his other with the bag of chips on Farkle's. "I mean, come on. It's Adele. What person in the music industry doesn't want to work with her. Think about it."

The boys looked up into the sky, like they were imagining working with Adele. All three of them laughed and nodded their heads, going back to the girls who were sitting by the pool with their legs dangling over the edge.

From a distance away, the bonfires from the Spot lit up a sea of darkness. In that darkness were just a bunch of green fields and dirt roads. On higher ground, a hill to be exact, Maya sat on the hood of a rusty old yellow Bug Volkswagen, watching the little ants that were high school students dance, laugh, and socialize in merriment.

* * *

The next morning, Lucas woke up later than usual to a knock at the door.

"Lucas, honey. You're going to be late for school."

He sat up and placed a hand on his face, rubbing the sleep away. It was going to be a long day.

In homeroom, Cory approached Lucas, Riley, and Farkle as the morning announcements were being read over the PA system. "So, how was your first night at the Spot as seniors?" The three of them groaned and simultaneously slumped in their chairs. Riley's dad laughed and patted his daughter on the back. "Yeah, trust me, I've been there."

Riley sighed, looking up at Cory. "I'm sorry I didn't get home until 1 am, dad."

"Yeah, I tried telling her it was time to go." Lucas sat up a bit straighter in his desk, lacing his fingers together on his desk and twiddling his thumbs together. Riley nodded, placing a hand on top of Lucas'. "He did. He really did, don't blame him. I was just having too much fun." Cory nodded and slumped his shoulders with a sigh. "I don't doubt he did. But your mother and I are not mad at you because you're currently paying the price. Just remember, being adult is great but you do have responsibilities you need to uphold. Like getting enough sleep to pay attention in class the next day. Just because you got into your college doesn't mean they don't look at your grades for your last year."

The school bell rang and most of Cory's homeroom students gathered their belongings and headed towards their classes. After Lucas and Farkle walked Riley to her class, they both went their separate ways. When Lucas entered his Chemistry class, he looked towards his seat, finding Maya Hart already there at the lab table they had shared he previous day before. He went over and placed his backpack on the tabletop.

"Alright, class!" Ms. Krueger called attention to herself int he front of the room. "I'll be reading your names off in groups of two completely at random. Go ahead and sit at a table with each other. They will be your lab partner for the rest of the year, so get comfortable."

As their teacher read off names, Lucas looked over at Maya, making sure that he was also paying attention enough to hear his name being called. "You should have come last night, it was really fun." Maya looked back at him with a raised brow, placing her pen down on her notebook that she had been scribbling in. "Oh, yeah? Is that why most of the senior class looks dead tired?"

Lucas laughed and nodded guiltily. "Yeah, actually. Most of us left around midnight and that drive back is a killer." Maya nodded in response as if she knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Lucas Friar and… Maya Hart." Ms. Krueger said out loud as she crossed two names off of her list.

Maya ran a hand through her blonde hair and inspected her ends, "Looks like we're lab partners." Lucas smiled down at her and tipped an imaginary hat, "I guess we are, huh, Partner?"

Maya eyed him from the corner of her eyes for a moment before she rolled them and laughed to herself.

Stacks of stapled paper were handed out through the class. Ms. Krueger explained the lab and soon students were working at their stations. Maya watched Lucas as he weighed the test tube and when he read out it's mass, Maya wrote it down in a composition notebook. Lucas held up the empty test tube towards her. "Here, why don't you pour the colored hydrated compound into the tube and weigh it on the scale?"

Maya chewed on her lower lip, looking from Lucas to the tube in his hand. With a shrug of her shoulders, she grabbed the tube and the packet and poured its contents into it slowly. "How much of this needs to go in here?"

Lucas looked over the packet, trying to find the instructions. "Uh… Oh, it's right here. It says to pour all of it." Maya nodded and followed his directions, pouring the rest of the compound into the tube. She then placed it on the scale, and recorded it's number. Lucas watched her right the number down. He stood up from his stool and got behind her as she sat in her seat, reaching around her to point at her notebook, indicating the last empty box in the table she had drawn up. "Okay, for his one we're looking for the mass of the compound."

Maya looked up at him over her shoulder, then back at her notebook. "So… we subtract the mass that we just recorded from the one we got when we weighed the empty tube, right?" Lucas nodded and Maya went to do the math below the table. "Yup, that's right," Lucas said after he checked her result.

The rest of the forty-five minute class went by in a similar fashion; Lucas and Maya sharing the lab work and Maya writing down their findings. Before they knew it, the bell rang and some students were already out the door. A couple groups, Maya and Lucas included, were caught up in the lab that they had no idea of what the time was. Lucas looked at the clock on top of the door and then back to Maya. "Well, I guess we can finish the lab tomorrow. You mind if I can copy what you've written in your comp book tonight? I'll get it back to you tomorrow during class."

Maya closed her composition notebook and handed it to him, still sitting on the stool. "Yup, no problem. But you better not be thinking of leaving and making me clean up." Lucas took the notebook and shoved it into his backpack on the floor. "Not a chance." Maya smiled and went to work on cleaning their station. She placed the scales away while Lucas stored away the test tubes and beakers.

While Lucas was bent down placing the beakers in the cabinets and drawers, Maya wiped down the table top. She chewed on her lower lip and avoided eye contact with him. "So…" She started off, a little nervous which seemed unlike her to Lucas. From the two days he'd spent with her, she was never at a loss for words. In fact, she was always quick on her tongue, ready to give him a witty or sarcastic comeback. He stood up and grabbed his backpack, placing a strap on his shoulder. "What's up?"

Maya grabbed her own bag from the floor and dumped her pencil bag in it before slinging it over herself. "What do you do after practices."

Lucas looked down at her, shocked that she would even ask about his personal life. Well, she didn't really ask, it wasn't a question. There was no inflection in her voice at the end of her sentence, in fact, it was more like she demanded the answer. When he didn't answer fast enough for Maya's liking, she made her way out of the door, but he quickly caught up with her. "Uh, usually I'm either volunteering, studying, with Riley, or studying with Riley."

Maya stopped by her locker and traded her AP chemistry text book for a French III one. Lucas waited for her, not completely sure why. From behind, Smackle and Riley approached him. Riley placed a hand on Lucas' bicep, catching him off guard. He jumped, though only slightly, and relaxed when he turned to see his two friends. "Oh, hey Riles."

Riley smiled up at him, finding his hand with her own and lacing her fingers with his. "Hi! How was class?" It was then Riley noticed Maya who was stuffing things into her messenger bag. "Oh, Hi Maya!" Maya gave Riley a small smile back and a raise of her brows. "Hey. Riley right?"

Riley nodded, "Yeah, I'm really sorry you couldn't make it to the Spot last night. Maybe next Friday you can come with us! We're really friendly, so don't worry about it being awkward or anything." Maya nodded and kept the same smile on her face. "Yeah, hopefully!" Maya added some fake enthusiasm. Around people who were just so happy, she couldn't help but feel the need to act just as enthusiastic. Except mostly, it was out of sarcasm. It was something Riley didn't pick up on, though, or if she did, Lucas figured that Riley thought Maya meant no harm from it.

Maya gave a genuine smile to the darker brunette girl with glasses. "Hey, Iz. How's your mom?" Smackle smiled at Maya and gave a sigh. "She is the same. She is still pestering me about joining her debutant club with her friends and their daughters. She doesn't seem to understand that I have a full and packed schedule. I must maintain my 4.5 GPA, perform well during debates, and have a social life. It is important that I enjoy my time with my boyfriend and my friends."

Maya gave a small chuckle and shut her locker. "Well tell Janet I say hi."

"I will."

Lucas looked down at the two girls to his right and nodded his chin over towards the cafeteria. "You guys go on ahead, I was just talking to Maya about our Lab that we're going to finish tomorrow."

"Are you sure?" Riley looked at him with large eyes, squeezing his hand in hers tightly.

"Yeah, it won't take long." Lucas gave her hand a squeeze back. His hold on her hand loosened until he let it go. Riley and Smackle walked away from them towards the cafeteria then.

"She's a peach." Maya lifted her messenger bag's strap over her head and on her shoulder.

Lucas gave a small chuckle, hands holding on to the straps of his backpack. "Yeah, she just takes some getting used to." He leaned his body against the lockers, trying to remember what they were talking about, "Oh, did you want to grab your notebook after my practice, is that why?"

Maya shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Nah, I was just wondering." With that, Maya Hart walked the opposite way of the cafeteria, down the hall and towards the out door quad. Lucas turned to watch her leave with a brow lifted, both in curiosity and in confusion.

Maya Hart was quick with her witty responses and banter. She seemed to not care about the social standings of high school. She was nervous one second, then confident and fired up the next. There was an odd air of presence to her, like she didn't pay any mind to everyone else's rules and instead made her own and followed them.

"That girl is weird." Lucas said aloud before turning around and jogging towards the cafeteria.

* * *

 **Ending Notes:** Sorry this took awhile, first week of school came up! Don't fret, Riley and Maya will become friends. Maybe. Or they'll just be friendlier towards each other. Well, more like Maya will be friendlier. Also, to the guest wondering if the adult rated content will be between Riley and Lucas, the answer is no.

As always, I would love if you read a review letting me know what you think, it helps me keep motivated knowing that people are actually interested in this. I'm trying to do at least two updates a month. I'm in college and so I don't have as much free time as I need/want in order to update this more frequently. If you want to get in contact with me for any reason, shoot me a message here or go on my profile where you'll find a link of my tumblr which I check at least daily. :P

Thanks again and I hoped you guys enjoyed this one!


	3. Chapter 3

You guys waited this long, I won't make you read a long note in the beginning :P

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

Maya's book bag sat on a stool chair, forgotten as it's owner was bent forward with a cue stick in hand, lining up her shot to get her solid-colored ball into the left corner pocket. She drew her arm back, then pushed forward. The disdain on her face showed in a scowl as she stayed in the position for a moment longer after the ball missed the pocket. The blonde girl straightened up and gave an aggressive huff of air, eyes still glaring holes at the yellow solid ball.

From the other end of the pool table, a man about half a head taller than her laughed as he stood leaned against his own cue stick. "Nice try, kid." He ran his hand over his mouth, eying the remaining balls on the table, then ran it over his beard. As he was calculating his next move, he asked her, without looking up, "So, how's school treatin' ya'?"

Maya tucked the tall stick between her arm and her side as she grabbed her phone from her back pocket, checking to see if she had gotten any messages. "Eh, it's alright, I _guess_." She looked up from the screen to find him barely reaching for his shot. "Oh, come on, Shawn. Just shoot the thing already!"

Maya's impatience and raised voice startled Shawn, making him accidentally hit the ball which completely missed his target. He clenched his fist as he turned to stare at her through narrow eyes. "Kid, I swear…" Maya laughed and shrugged her shoulders, setting up for her next shot. Shawn leaned against an adjacent wall, watching her. "Meet any friends?"

"Well, there's this one kid in my chem class…" Maya took the shot and sunk a ball in. She looked at the table and the placements of all the balls before walking around to get a better angle at the pocket on the right of where she originally stood.

Shawn nodded with his arms crossed, "I hope she's nice."

Maya took the shot and as the ball sunk in, she looked up from her position at the older man with a small smile upon her lips. " _He_ is, actually."

Shawn's look grew stern as he uncrossed his arms and propped them both on the pool table. The light above him cast an eerie shadow on his face, it made him all the more intimidating, almost like a mob boss from the 50s in Manhattan. "Maya, be careful."

Maya bit on her lip, taking his words into consideration. Quickly though, she shook it off and shrugged her shoulders and she lined herself up to make the last shot. "Don't _worry_ , we're just friends."

Shawn rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his jean pockets, trying to act aloof about the fact that Maya was about to win at a game of pool—that he had challenged her to mind you— again. "I've heard that before. Did you tell him?"

Maya spun around, her blonde hair flowing behind her as she commenced her victory dance. She laid her cue stick on top of the green fabric covered table and leaned herself against its side, legs crossed in a cool pose. The teen looked at the adult with something distant in her eyes and a smile that barely reached her lips.

"Tell him what?"

* * *

"Today will be the last day to work on the lab, so I expect all of your composition notebooks on my desk at the start of tomorrow's class, you guys got it?" Ms. Krueger stuffed her hands into her white lab coat and walked around to the front of her desk where she leaned against it. Her eyes scanned the body of students in her chemistry class. They were all at their lab tables yet not one single pair of partners had even started bringing out their equipment. She sighed and pulled her hands out of her pockets and crossed her arms over her chest. "That _means_ you guys should start _now_." Ms. Krueger rolled her eyes as each of her students scrambled to get started on their work.

Maya and Lucas were no different. Maya grabbed all the equipment they had used the day before while Lucas grabbed both composition notebooks from his backpack. He placed them on the table and helped Maya with the lab, reading out the instructions. He scanned the directions and did his best to paraphrase them.

Maya was staring at him, waiting for him to instruct her. He put the papers down on the table and looked at their equipment. "Okay, so grab the hydrated salt test tube with the test tube holder—"

Maya grabbed the right tool and held it up to his face, "This tong thingy?"

Lucas laughed and nodded his head, gently placing his hand on top of hers to guide it away from his face. "Yes, that thing. Be careful with that, you almost poked my eye out!"

Ms. Krueger came around and handed the both of them a pair of goggles, "And _that's_ why you two should be using these."

Maya rolled her eyes and reluctantly took the goggles from their teacher and strapped it onto her head.

Lucas placed his own goggles on his head and raised a brow at her. "Do I look like Bill Nye?"

Maya stared at him as if he were talking crazy. "Bill? The junior?"

Lucas' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "Bill Nye the Science guy! Have you _never_ heard of him?! He was like every little kid's role model growing up."

Maya shrugged her shoulders and stared at the beaker she held between the tong-like tool. "Didnt watch much TV when I was younger I guess."

"Well we can discuss your lack of childhood later, we have work to do." Lucas reached out over all the other equipment and took hold of the igniter in his right hand. He turned on the Bunsen burner's gas and squeezed the igniter, creating a flame. "Okay, so hold it over the flame for five to ten minutes."

Maya moved her hand with the tongs and test tube over the flame, leaning on the lab table to support her weight. "Hold on, I have to do this for _how_ long?" Her brows furrowed, showing her impatience.

Lucas flipped through the instructions again, making sure he read it right, and nodded his head, "Yup, says right here: five to ten minutes. But make sure not to burn it." He reached his hand out for hers, closing his fingers over her wrist, rotating her hand. "You have to make sure you don't hold one spot over the flame, just kind of rotate it."

Maya glared up at him and used her free hand to playfully hit his hand off her wrist, "Okay, I got it, I got it."

Lucas sat down on the stool and started to record their results.

By the end of class, Maya was cleaning out the test tubes in the sink and Lucas was putting the rest of the lab equipment away. Once he was done, he grabbed his notebook and stuffed it back into his backpack. Maya did the same and was already on her way out of the classroom when Lucas stopped her. "Hey, so maybe we could meet up after school for a little bit just to finish all the calculations?"

Maya paused at right under the doorway and spun on her heel with a raised brow, "Don't you have football?" She pressed her back against the door frame to let other students through.

"Yeah, but this shouldn't take long." Lucas walked through the door next and stood at the right to wait for Maya.

She gave a curt nod of her head and a shrug of her shoulders. "Sure, why not." Maya started to walk away from him towards the opposite direction he was headed.

Instead of chasing after her, he just called out to her with a loud voice, enough to be heard over the numerous chattering students in the halls. "Out by the flagpole?"

Maya turned around again to face him, but kept walking backwards down the hall. "Yeah, I'll be there."

* * *

Lucas sat with the rest of his friends outside that day during their lunch. They were all just lounging around the grassy area with Riley's head in his lap while she looked up at the clouds. Smackle and Farkle were sitting across from each other, both eating their lunch and discussing their AP Physics class with Riley. Zay was laying down between all of them, tossing a football up in the air repeatedly.

"So, Riles," Zay started, holding the ball in his hands and refraining from throwing it again. "You excited for MIT?"

Riley sat up with a huge smile on her face, bringing her knees to her chest with her arms around them. "I am! I'm super excited about their astronomy and physics department. I can't believe that I got accepted. Their acceptance rate is so low!"

Lucas leaned forward and placed his chin on her shoulder from behind her and smiled cheekily. "I knew you could do it. You're _really_ smart, Riley and you've been going to those Astronomy camps every summer since the eighth grade."

Riley leaned her head against his, smiling right back at him. "Thanks, babe, but I couldn't have done it without you."

Smackle nodded her head in agreement, taking one last bite of her sandwich. "She's right. If it weren't for you, she wouldn't have even applied. It's a good thing you gave her those brochures."

"Yeah," Lucas took his head off Riley's shoulder and shrugged his own. "But Farkle helped. I had no clue about what colleges to even look up for that sort of thing. All I knew is that Riley really liked space. Then Farkle helped me find all the information and stuff. So, thanks, dude."

Lucas held out his hand for a high five, which Farkle took. "What are best friends for, right?"

Riley placed a hand on Farkle's bicep, smiling widely at him as gratitude. "Well thanks, Farkle."

Farkle smiled back at her and snapped his fingers at her, forming a gun-shape with his fingers. "Best friends since the first grade, right?"

Riley nodded her head ecstatically at Farkle, the both of them smiling at each other. Smackle noticed the exchange and reached her hand out to place it on top of Farkle's giving it a gentle squeeze. Farkle snapped his head back to Smackle with a smile on his face, one that she eagerly returned.

Zay, who had been watching all of this play out with very knowing eyes, cleared his throat and started to toss the football up in the air again. "So you guys know how homecoming's comin up right?"

Smackle nodded her head and adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose. "Yes, Zay. October 3rd. That is about three weeks from now."

"Yeah, and you know how ya'll were excited about Vanessa coming up from Texas so she could cheer me on and then go to the homecoming dance?"' Zay avoided everyone's stares but could feel them weighing on him by focusing on the football that he was tossing around. When no one said anything, he took it as a sign to go on, "Yeah well that ain't happening anymore…"

"What did you do this time?" Lucas asked, with a slight annoyance in his voice. Zay and Vanessa were so on and off, they weren't even sure if the two of them were currently on until Zay had brought this up.

"You see, we got to talking about college and how I'm going to Berklee in Boston and she's going to University of Houston. We got real grown up about stuff and man, did you know that it's 1,875 miles away from each other?" Zay stopped throwing the ball again, and held it just above him to block the sun out of his eyes. "Well it really bummed the both of us out and we just agreed that maybe going to see each other so often ain't such a good thing. Said that we both should focus on our last year at our own schools and maybe durin' the summer we could meet up before we go off to college."

The group fell silent, not sure of what to say. Lucas took a quick glance at Riley. It was a topic of conversation that they hadn't had yet. It definitely wasn't a thousand miles away from each other, but there was surely going to be distance between to the two of them while off at college. Whether they wanted to talk about it or not, it was going to come up eventually.

Riley was the first to speak up with a sad smile on her face, "Well I'm real proud of you Zay for being an adult about it. Looks like you're finally growing up."

Zay laughed, "What? Finally?! Please girl, if we left you alone in New York City, you'd freak out within five minutes!" Everyone except Riley chuckled at his joke.

Right when he tossed the ball up, Riley had playfully jabbed her foot into his side, catching him off guard. He squirmed when he tossed the ball up and it left his fingers in a forward motion. They all watched the football roll down the slight incline of the grassy hill, falling in front of some converse-shoe-clad feet.

Zay stood up to see where it had gone. "Oh, hey it's that Maya chick."

Lucas stood up as well, dusting the grass off of the back of his jeans. He lifted his hand over his head, grabbing Maya's attention. "Hey, over here, Maya!"

The blonde girl looked to the group of teens, three sitting on the grass with the other boys standing up around them. She looked at her feet and noticed the football. Bending down, she grabbed the football and did her best to line her small fingers with the laces. The brown oblong-shaped ball spun in a spiral as it flew through the sky. Needless to say, the two boys were impressed. Zay caught the ball in his arms and shuffled it into his hands.

"Wow," Riley's eyes were wide, obviously impressed as well. "We should invite her over!"

Zay nodded his head and started to make his way towards Maya, "Yeah, with a throw like that I'd _love_ to get to know her."

Lucas laughed and caught up to him, playfully swatting his arm. "Dude, what about Vanessa?"

Zay pointed at Maya with the football in hand as they neared her, speaking low enough that she couldn't hear. "I was _kidding_ man, but girl should try out for powder puff!"

"Hey, blondie," Zay stopped right at the edge of the lawn, just in front of Maya.

She looked at him with a raised brow, her hip cocked to the side. "It's Maya."

Zay waved his hand in the air, as if shooing away her name. "Yeah yeah, whatever. _Toe-may-toe, toe-maw-toe._ "

Lucas smiled and placed an arm around Zay's shoulder, rolling his eyes. "You got a good arm on ya' shortstack."

Maya's blue eyes glared at the tall tanned boy, already hating the nickname. "Thanks, Cowboy. I used to play when I was younger."

Zay stretched out his arm and hand, the one with the football in it, and placed it against Maya's shoulder. "You ever think of doing Powder Puff?"

Lucas was interested to see this play out. From what he knew from her, she wasn't interested in high school's social activities and hierarchies.

"Yeah, that sounds like it would be fun." Maya looked up at Lucas, quite amused at the expression on his face. Lucas was definitely caught off guard, just when he had thought he had her type figured out, too.

Lucas shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, trying to regain his composure. "You wanna come hang out with us and the gang for lunch?" Both he and Zay pointed over their shoulders to where Smackle, Farkle, and Riley sat in the grass. Riley was enthusiastically waving over at her.

Maya gave a wave back and then looked back over at the two boys in front of her. "Can't," she paused to lift her messenger bag slightly in front of her. "I have to work on a painting I'm doing."

"Next time then?"

"We'll see."

Zay noticed the smile on Lucas' face linger while he watched Maya walk away towards the school. He looked back and forth between the two seniors and started to wag his finger accusingly at his old friend, an amused smirk upon his features. "Okay, okay. I see, _very_ interestin'."

Lucas followed behind Zay who lead the way back to their group of friends. "What? What's interesting?"

Zay shrugged his shoulders and sat down on the grass in his original spot. "Nothin'. I like her though."

* * *

The final bell of the school day rang and students of John Adams High School were piling out of the building. Among them was Maya Hart with her art kit in hand and messenger bag strapped across her shoulders. From behind her, she heard a familiar voice call her name. The blonde teen turned around to see Lucas desperately squeezing through the numerous amount of teenage bodies. She gave him a small smirk and a raise of her brow. "Hey, Huckleberry."

When Lucas caught up to her, he swung his backpack around to the front of him, unzipping it and taking out his lab notebook. "We gotta finish the lab together, remember?"

Maya squinted her eyes as she looked at the composition book in his hand. As if she had suddenly remembered, her eyes widened when she looked back at him. "Oh yeah!" She nodded her head, gave a rather peculiar smile and spun on her heel towards the school's parking lot, wavy blonde hair whipping behind her.

Lucas stayed in his spot for a moment, confused. "Wait… what?" It took him a couple of seconds to realize that Maya wasn't stopping anytime soon to come back to where he currently stood. So, he jogged after her, keeping pace with her as she walked when he caught up with her. "Don't you want to finish?"

She looked over at him as she walked to wherever was her destination. "Well, _yeah_ , that's what we're going to do."

Before Lucas knew it, the two of them had stopped in front of an old and rusty Volkswagen Beetle. He watched Maya put her keys into the lock and unlocked the passenger seat. His eyes continued to follow her as she got in, throwing her stuff haphazardly in the backseat. He wasn't moving in his place or stopping her, he was more bewildered. Didn't they have to finish this report for their first grade in their chem class?

With her hands on the steering wheel, she stared at him through her window and nodded her head to the passenger seat, signaling for him to hop in.

It was Lucas' turn to squint his eyes in confusion. From out of the car, he raised both of his hands by his side in an over-exaggerated fashion, " _What?_!"

Maya sighed, though he couldn't hear it from the outside, and rolled her eyes. With her left hand, she started to roll down her driver seat window with visible effort. "Get in!"

Lucas held up his notebook with one hand and pointed at it with the other. "But we have to—"

"—Finish, I know. So get in. I do my best thinking when I'm driving." Maya smiled up at him in such a way that left Lucas utterly dumbfounded.

"Maya, I have football practice." The teen boy put his hands down in frustration and looked over his shoulder towards the football field then back at her.

"Okay, well it won't take that long." Maya continued to smile at him like nothing she was doing was at all nonsense and everything was okay. She then patted her seat when he didn't move an inch.

Lucas sighed, defeated, and stuffed his notebook back in his backpack. "Forget it, Maya. I'll just finish it at home. I'll show it to you in the morning or something." He started to walk towards the field he had just been looking at. When he looked towards his left, he saw Maya driving right at his side, going 3 miles an hour.

"Come on, Prince Charming. You can afford to be late to the ball. It's chemistry. Two heads are better than one, right?" Maya stopped her car when Lucas stopped walking. He gave into her pressure and walked over to the passenger side where he attempted to open the door. Maya leaned over in her seat to open the door for him, laughing just a little as she did so. "Sorry, car's kinda beat."

Lucas slid into the seat and reached across him to buckle himself in. "It's fine," he said as he looked around the interior of the car. It was definitely in better shape than the exterior, but just barely. There were a couple holes and rips in all of the seats' upholstery. The car mats underneath his feet seemed to be stained with who knows what, and there was a lack of a shift knob, just a metal pole that Maya held whenever she needed to shift gears.

As if she could feel him judging her ride, Maya glanced at him through the side of her eyes before she shifted gears into drive and pulled out of the parking lot. "Her name is Sheila. She's a hand me down and I'm working on fixing her up, okay?"

Lucas placed his backpack in the back after taking out his notebook. "She's definitely a fix-me-upper. But hey, if you need help on her, I wouldn't mind. I actually enjoy cars." He opened the notebook in his hands to the page in which he had stuffed the folded the lab instructions. "My grandpa—"

Maya scoffed, interrupting him mid sentence, "—Yer _Grandpappy_?"

Lucas turned his head at her to find that she was biting on her lower lip, trying her hardest to not laugh out loud. "—Yeah, Grandpappy Joe, actually. He gave me his tr—"

"—Hold on, hold on, _hold the fuck on_. You actually call your grandpa _Grandpappy_ Joe?!" Maya stopped at a stop sign, smacking her right hand repeatedly only the steering wheel as she laughed hysterically. "Holy crap, you really are from Texas!"

Lucas crossed his arms over his chest, a little offended. "Maya, did you think I was kidding?"

"Yeah, kind of actually," Maya's breathing returned to normal as she dabbed at the tears that pooled up in the corner of her eyes. She pressed her right foot on the gas, and they were off again.

"Well, I really am from Texas. And Gradpappy Joe," Maya giggled again as Lucas continued on, "gave me his truck on my sixteenth birthday. Drove it all the way here from Texas. She was pretty dinged up, but I fixed up her engine and transmission, got new tires, and gave her a new paint job and she was good as new."

Lucas unfolded the lab instructions and grabbed a pencil from his backpack in the backseat. "Alright," he began, his green eyes scanning all the papers in both his hands and lap. "So we just have to convert the masses to moles. Sounds easy enough, I guess…"

Maya took a right at the next stop sign, driving further and further away from the school. "Alright, _Tex_. Lay it on me!"

"Okay, if you say so." Lucas looked back and forth between the lab sheet and his notebook, then finally gave her the equation. "0.4200 grams multiplied by 1 mol of water over 18.02 grams of water." He started to do the math on paper, carrying numbers and putting in zeroes.

"0.02331 moles of water," Maya said suddenly. Lucas looked back and forth between Maya and his notebook and when he didn't clarify her work, Maya laughed as she kept her eyes on the road in front of them. "Go ahead, check my math."

Lucas stared down at his lap where he had put his notebook and finished penciling in his calculations. "Wow… yeah, that's right. Maya? How'd you do that?" He was bewildered.

Maya pointed at her temple with her right hand, left hand on the steering wheel that was just in front of her, she sat up so close to the wheel he figured it was because her legs were so short she could barely reach the pedals. "I picture the numbers in my head and it's really easy from there. Instead of looking at it like numbers, it's like I paint them with pretty designs and strokes and I'm able to visualize boring stuff like that better."

"Wow, that's actually really cool, Maya," Lucas let his eyes linger on the blonde driver for just a moment longer before tearing them away to read Maya some more mathematical equations. They went back and forth with him giving her the equations and her reciting the work she did in her head. There were a couple of times he would ask her how she got her answer since he couldn't seem to get his own right, and each time he was surprised at how easy these calculations came to her.

"Do you mind penciling in the answers in my lab, too?" Maya stopped at a light, throwing on her signal lights on. The ticking of her blinker was rapid, an indication that her lights were broken. She whipped her hair back and forth as she looked both directions before turning.

"Sure thing, in your messenger bag?" Lucas was answered with a simple, 'M'hmm' before he stretched his arms to reach into the backseat and grab her messenger bag. He put it into his lap and started to dig through its contents. There were random writing and drawing utensils thrown about and an open pencil case where they had came from. In his search, he found one text book, a reader, and about 3 sketch books. There were a lot of papers sticking out of the sketch books, like they had been stuffed between it's pages. "Why do you have so many of these?"

"I got lots of ideas in this head, Friar." Maya tilted her head to the side as she looked at him briefly before going back to staring at the road.

Lucas finally found her lab composition book and filled in the answers they had both come to. When he was done, he placed the pencil behind his ear and looked up from the books on his lap. He had been looking down at their notebooks and concentrated on their math for such an extended period of time that when he looked up and out the windows, he didn't quite recognize where they were. It definitely wasn't close to the school's football field. "Maya, where the fuck are we?"

* * *

 **Ending Notes:** This was long waited, I am so sorry! For some reason this chapter just wouldn't write itself!  
I apologize, this probably wasn't as juicy as you intended, but hopefully more things will happen in the next chapter! I actually had to cut this off here because I thought it was getting too long and I could just use what extra I had for the next chapter.  
If you're a returning reader and read this, thank you so much for your patience! If you're a new reader, welcome!

Let me know what you guys think, thanks!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

* * *

An old rusted up Volkswagen Beetle pulled into the parking lot of a convenient store just at the corner of the street. There were a couple of questionable sounds that came from the car's engine as Maya put it into park, right in front of the store. She took her key from the ignition and pulled on her emergency break, "Well Bucky, all that thinking has made me hungry. Let's go grab some snacks and we can have a little picnic together." Maya gave Lucas this particular smile that seem to ooze with sarcasm which he couldn't help but chuckle at. She made her way into the store, Lucas following shortly behind her.

Lucas followed her straight to the cashier register where she picked up a couple of Slim Jims and dumped a handful of Twinkies onto the counter. He watched her as she scurried towards the large refrigerators in the back and brought back two bottles of Dr. Pepper. The man behind the register looked from the assortment of junk food to the pair of teenagers in his store with a raised brow. When his gaze fell over Lucas, the boy gave him a shrug of his shoulders and pointed at Maya. "They're _hers_ , not mine."

Maya rolled her eyes and lightly hit him in the chest with a shake of her head. "Trust me, Lucas. This is the best combination of junk food you'll ever try." Maya turned back to the cashier and gave the man the man a couple of bills of money. "Keep the change, Jimmy." The blonde girl grabbed the now bagged treats and made her way out, Lucas following her like a lost little pup. Poor guy was completely clueless.

"Thanks, Maya. You be good, you hear?" The elderly man at the register counted out the bills into the proper slots of the register, calling after the two teens.

Maya was just at the door, ready to open it when someone from the outside decided to open it for her, letting her and Lucas through. From the other side of the transparent glass door, Maya waved her free hand above her head at Jimmy the store tenant, "Always am!"

Now back in the car, Lucas sat in the passenger seat, staring at Maya. "Okay, now that you have your snacks, can we get back to school? I still have football practice you know." He reached across him for the seat belt to fasten himself in, and once buckled, he found the paper bag of Slim Jims, Twinkies, and soda in his lap. Lucas glanced at Maya from the left corner of his eyes as she turned the car on and pulled out of her parking spot. When the much smaller teen girl in the driver seat didn't say anything and instead drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, he took it as a sign that she had heard his request and was driving back towards John Adams High. He wasn't well-versed in this part of town, but he trusted that Maya knew how to get back; after all, she was the one that brought them to the middle of nowhere. And it was quite literally the middle of nowhere. For as far as his eye could see, Lucas saw only patches of green grass, sometimes brown patches from where the grasses were all dried up. To his left, grass. To his right, grass. If he looked behind him: grass. It wasn't until they reached a crossroads, a 4-way stop, that Lucas saw something other than grass and road: it was a sign. The green sign read, "Ozone Park"—where their high school was located—with an arrow pointing East following a number of miles away. Beneath it read, "New York City", an arrow pointing West.

Lucas could picture the football field in his head now, the neat green grass, the meter lines, goal posts, and all his teammates. He'd probably hear an ear full from not only Coach, but Zay as well. However, Lucas' heart sank as Maya turned took a left turn instead of a right turn. His sat up with his back straighter, previously slumped in the bucket seat. He put his right hand on the dashboard in front of him, twisting his body to look through the back window. "Maya, I think you took a wrong turn."

Maya swayed her body back and forth in her seat, but kept her arms and hands still on the steering wheel to avoid swerving on the road, though there weren't many cars around them. He figured, though, that if they continued to go into the city, that they would be one of many cars on the highway.

"Nope, don't think I did, Tex."

"Are you _serious_ , right now Maya?!" His brows furrowed in anger as he stared at the petite 5 foot nothing blonde 17 year old beside him. When she didn't so much as flinch or give him any kind of response, he angrily hit his fist on the dashboard. "Stop this car right now, Hart. I'll _walk_ to practice if I have to!"

Maya turned her head sharply at him, eyes glaring daggers into his eyes. "Hey! How _dare_ you hurt my baby! What did she ever do to you?!"

"It's not what she did to me, it's what her shitty owner did," Lucas mumbled under his breath, avoiding her eyes and staring out of the window. This was when he noticed all the cars zooming past. There was no actual way he'd be able to walk back to practice.

Maya chose to ignore him, rolling her eyes and focusing back on the now busy roads in front of her. "Plus, even if you did walk, wouldn't practice be over?"

Lucas shrugged, crossing his arms over his chest as if to sulk. "Practice is over at 7:30 tonight."

"Perfect!" Maya said, looking behind her to switch lanes without using her signals. "We'll get you back before 6." She looked at the barely-working clock at the center of the dashboard, reaching her hand up to turn on the radio, humming along to whatever pop song was currently playing. After a few minutes of silence from Lucas' end, Maya glanced over at the boy who was rolling his eyes to oblivion with his forehead pressed against the window. With one hand on the steering wheel, she gently shook him by the arm. "Oh come on, it won't be that bad, Bucky!"

Lucas shot her a glare, he was obviously not in the mood for nicknames, but the expression on his face elicited a giggle from Maya, which, though he was reluctant to admit, broke his sour mood and nearly smiled. It was just a quick twitch of the corners of his lips in an upward notion, but it wasn't quite a smile. That's what he told himself anyway.

Twenty-five minutes later, and the two of them were on the Brooklyn Bridge, music blaring from only one of the car's speakers. Maya was easily belting out the lyrics to the music that was playing on the Throwback station that both Lucas and her agreed upon. They spent a little less than half the trip to the bridge fighting over which radio station they would be listening to, from country to rock, pop, to folk blues. Thankfully, they settled on songs that they had listened to growing up.

"You got it, you got it bad when you're on the phone hang up, and you call right back!" Maya sat with both of hands on the wheel, whipping her hair back and forth as she sang.

Juxtaposed to his driver, Lucas had his head against his palm, arm leaned against the car door. He was also singing along to the old Usher song, but his lips were barely moving as he mumbled the words more than sang. Though he wasn't as pouty as he had been in the beginning, he still wasn't happy that Maya had just essentially kidnapped him.

Once over the bridge, there were buildings that were barely taller than their high school that lined the blocks. Deeper and deeper they went into the city until finally, Lucas could no longer count specifically how many stories tall the buildings were and he could only imagine how up they went. Skyscrapers reaching nearly the stratosphere littered the sky. He sat up and leaned forward in his seat, peering up through the front windshield. "Wow… Cowboy in the big Apple, huh?"

Maya caught his words, which he evidently let slip out, and scoffed gently. She shook her head, trying to pay attention to the road and not the buildings and sights around them. "You know, I think they already have one of those in Time Square. And I doubt you'd want to take that title from him."

Lucas allowed himself a laugh this time, remembering the first time he had visited New York City back in the seventh grade with his friends. They all wanted him to take a picture with Time Square's naked cowboy. His mother still had the picture posted on the side of the fridge. Lucas started to bounce his leg, a little antsy in his seat. "So… Maya. You want to tell me why we're here yet or…?" His voice trailed off, leaving room for Maya to answer.

"No, not real—"

Lucas immediately cut her off, all he needed to hear was the simple no. "Okay, well that's _great_ and all, but I've been holding my piss for fifteen minutes, so can we just find somewhere to pee?!"

Maya laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah," She waved her hand at him, as if brushing the urgency of the situation away. "As soon as I find parking."

"Parking?! Maya, this is New York City, there is no way you'll fi—There!" Lucas quickly pointed his finger in front of him. The car was barely leaving, it hadn't even pulled out of it's spot, the black town car had it's lights on and that was signal enough for him, Maya, and apparently a bunch of other drivers.

"Got it!" Maya stepped on the gas, driving around the few cars in front of her, trying to beat one of them to the space. There was lots of honking, fists were thrown in the air, and a string of profanities, but somehow, Maya managed to squeeze her little old Beetle into the New York City curb parking spot. Before the car could even come to a full stop, Lucas was out of the door and off to the Starbucks just down the street.

"Much better," Lucas said as he exited the coffee shop moments later. He took his time getting back to Maya and the car, breathing in deep and taking in the city air. It was humid, still hot in late august. The smell of ketchup, mustard, and relish from the nearby hotdog stand assaulted his nose. There was an industrial smell in the air too, one that anyone could only define as a "city-smell". It was very much different than where he and Maya lived back in Queens.

Lucas was nearing where he had left Maya and the car. In the near distance, Maya was leaning against the passenger door of her car, hands in her jacket pockets. He leaned on her car with her, crossing his arms and looking down at the girl. "So, you ready to head back home?"

" _Ohhh_ , not a chance, Prince Charming." Maya pushed herself off of her beat up car, grabbing the brown paper bag that held the snacks from the convenient store in it. "We haven't had our picnic yet!"

"So, we're going to central park?" Lucas raised a brow at her, rather confused.

Maya simply shook her head and started to walk straight across the wide New York City sidewalk. He looked from her tiny frame to the large sk scraper building that she was walking to. He gave the back of her head a quizzical look when she didn't turn around and instead walked straight into the building which a plethora of different kind of people were walking out of. He followed after her, and when he caught up, matched her confident stride as they walked straight past the doorman.

Lucas leaned down to her, his eyes darting every which way trying to avoid looking too suspicious, which he was obviously failing at. "Maya, what are we doing?"

Maya smiled sweetly at the people that they passed. Some adults were dressed in suits, but the majority of the people—young adults—were dressed from anywhere between casual and business casual. She leaned towards her left, getting closer to Lucas so that only he could hear her whisper through her teeth. "We're having our picnic! _Relax_ , don't be so stiff. This isn't wall-street. It's just another techy-building filled with fashion bloggers, web designers, hipsters, and their bosses. Look," Maya pointed over to a huge painting hung on a wall that showed a scene very much like the one they were in now. She pointed at two people in the right hand corner of the picture. "See that? That's us. We're just a couple of young techie entrepreneurs, here to schmooze our way to the top by sucking up to some of the big guys in the building. Now, follow my lead."

And that is what Lucas did, following barely half a pace behind her. Maya was walking with such a confidence that had he been a worker in this building, he would have totally believed she was employed somewhere in the building. When he realized that he was indeed too stiff, Lucas relaxed his shoulders, but kept his breath held just in case this whole facade that they were putting up wouldn't work.

Maya walked coolly to the lobby's front desk, just glancing at the woman who seemed busy checking her spreadsheets on her computer. "Hey, Donna. _John_ and I have a meeting with…" she paused momentarily and Lucas followed her eyes to find her glancing at the list of names on a board behind her. They were probably the names of the big shots on each floor and their departments. "…Garcia and Smith this afternoon. We're a little early, so we're just gonna go up to the conference rooms to get everything situated, mm'kay?"

The woman looked at Maya, gave a formal smile and nodded her head, waving her hand to give them the okay and pointed towards the elevators.

"Great, thanks!" Maya smiled widely at the lobby receptionist and made her way towards the elevator, her heels clacking on the tile floors below them.

Lucas followed her after giving a small thank you to the woman behind the desk. He and Maya were now waiting for the next elevator up amongst a small group of workers, some chatting amongst themselves, others checking their itinerary on their smart phones. Lucas clasped the wrist of his other hand in front of him, arms by his sides as he bounced back and forth the tips of his toes and his heels, eyes glancing up at the elevator's blinking lights as he spoke to his female companion. "That was impressive."

"Thanks, John." Maya smiled and scrunched up her nose up at him, cradling the bag of junk food to her chest. She stepped into the elevator when the shiny doors opened up to let a swarm of bodies out.

Lucas struggled with the rest of everyone else that needed to get on the elevator while Maya easily slipped through and found her spot in the back. The elevator door closed and opened onto the next floor up. While many people left, even more got in which caused the people in the small space to crowd together. Lucas quickly switched spots with Maya in the corner so that he had his broad back pressed against the walls and she was in front of him. He leaned his head down, lips by her ear. "So, what floor are we getting off on?"

Maya stiffened against him, probably because of their proximity. She tried to shuffle herself just a centimeter forward. She mumbled low beneath her breath, so quiet that Lucas couldn't quite hear her.

"Which one?" Lucas leaned closer to her, straining his ears to hear her soft voice in the crowded elevator.

"Garcia and Smith are on the top floor, so we'll have our picnic in a conference room somewhere up there. Hopefully, Donna at the front desk won't have caught on to us."

Finally, Lucas and Maya reached the eleventh and highest floor of the building. Lucas followed behind Maya, something he had been doing a lot today, as they passed by many cubicles. This place, however didn't seem like a dull gray, desk job kind of place. In every other cubicle were groups of people–mostly young adults—who were chatting and enjoying their work, having laughs, cheering and encouraging each other on.

"Excuse m—"

"Nelda and I have a meeting in the conference room in about 10 minutes, we just wanted to arrive early so we could prepare for our keynote," Lucas flashed a smile at a woman, no more than 27 years old, who had called their attention. She nodded with her eyes wide as she looked Lucas up and down. Beside him, he heard a very loud scoff from coming from Maya.

"Oh, it's just down there to the left." The brunette woman with thickly rimmed glasses smiled—almost smirked— at him and watched as he made his way towards the room she had pointed out.

Lucas continued to walk down the large room, sticking pretty close to Maya, so much so that their arms were touching. He had on this huge grin upon his face, eyes darting back and forth every so often. Needless to say, he was pretty uncomfortable, but at the same time there was a sort of adrenalin rushing through him knowing that they could get caught at any moment. Lucas, like Maya had done in the lobby, spoke through his teeth, looking forward and not at Maya, "Is she still staring?"

Maya looked up at him for a really quick second before she tried to casually look behind them at the woman who was still planted in the same spot, watching the two of them. Maya whipped her hair around and nodded her head rather obviously. If she were trying to be discreet, she had obviously failed. "Oh yeah, I think she's staring at your butt there, Cowboy."

Lucas laughed and opened the conference door for Maya, letting her in, "After you, Miss Nelda." After Maya walked through the open door, he walked in himself and closed the door behind him.

Maya rolled her eyes and took a seat at the large table, taking out the bottles of Dr. Pepper and placing them aside before she dumped the rest of the brown bag's contents on the glass top. "Yeah, about that, John. You're going to have to work on the names. _Nelda_? Really? You might as well have called me Olga!" She kicked her feet up on the table, crossing her legs at the ankles and reached forward for a snack.

Beside her, Lucas took a seat and picked up one of the Slim Jims. As he unwrapped one, he eyed her from the side, "Olga was my grandma's name."

Maya slowly turned her head to meet Lucas' gaze. She couldn't tell if he was joking or not, he was just looking at her with a blank expression. She cleared her throat and put her feet back on the table. " _Anyway_ ," she reached for a Twinkie and opened up its wrapper and handed it to him. "Here," she took the now peeled-back Slim Jim from his hand, took a bite of the Twinkie and then dipped the Slim Jim into the Twinkie's cream filling. She then took a bite of it and smiled at Lucas who was staring at her with a look of disgust on her face. With her mouth still full, she rolled her eyes and shoved both of the food items to him, "Just _try_ it, don't be boring, Lucas."

Skeptical, Lucas slowly reached his hands out for both of the foods. He was just as slow as he mimicked her actions that she had just preformed a minute ago. He took a deep breath before putting the Twinkie dipped Slim Jim into his mouth. He chomped his teeth down into it and chewed slowly. The teen boy watched Maya as she stared up at him with her big blue eyes, curious for his reaction. Surprisingly, he quite enjoyed it and took another dip and bite. "Wow, this is actually pretty damn good!"

"Of course it is!" Maya laughed and opened up her bottle of Dr. Pepper, turning the cap just slightly and then waiting until all the carbonation settled down before twisting it all the way open. "So, this place is nice, yeah?"

"M'hmm," He finished up his now fourth bite of the combination of junk foods and reached for his own bottle of soda. "Yeah, it's a lot more livelier than where my mom works at. Whenever I go down there to drop off some dinner for when she stays a long night, everyone just seems so drained." Lucas paused for a moment to wipe off any crumbs he might have had on his face, then glanced over to Maya who was munching on her own snacks, eyes looking up at him with curiosity as they begged him to continue. "It's just… I don't know how to explain it. The people there don't really seem to enjoy it, they do it for the money."

Maya nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, that sounds pretty horrible honestly. I would hate to be stuck at a job that I didn't love. I mean, money is one thing, but you should be able to enjoy what you do, you know? That's the difference between a career and a job."

Lucas nodded back a her and sighed as he leaned back in the seat. He felt as if Maya had just recited everything he was thinking about out loud, like she had read her mind. "Yeah, which is why I'm really hesitant about college."

Maya put down her food, staring back at him. "What do you mean?"

The boy rubbed the back of his neck, a nervous habit of his. Lucas started running his fingers against the edge of the table, as if to hide behind his actions as he told her something he didn't tell many people. "I want to be a veterinarian—"

"A little uncommon, but if you like it—" Maya had cut him off before he had finished, only to be cut off by him.

"No, no. I—I _want_ to be a veterinarian, but I'm going to college for Business." Lucas stuttered as he spoke, still a little shy of admitting something like that, especially to someone he barely knew. Why was he telling her these things anyway?

Maya squinted her eyes and tilted her head, trying to understand what he was getting at. "Wait… so then, why?"

Lucas sighed again, this time heavier. He stood up and started to pace around the room. "Well, I have a chance at a football scholarship to NYU who's business program is really good and my mo—"

"These two," Suddenly, the conference room doors open to reveal two security guards and the woman from the building's lobby. "I checked with Garcia and Smith to let them know about their meeting, but they told me they had none scheduled for today since they were on site with other clients." Her eyes glared at the two teens just across the room.

Maya had shot straight up from her chair as soon as the doors opened. She and Lucas glanced at each other, then back at their newly found company. She swallowed a large lump in her throat then stared back at Lucas. "Run?"

Lucas nodded, "Run!"

The two teens were out the door. They ran past the two security guards who were slow in turning around. Maya and Lucas were about 10 feet away when they looked behind them to see that they were still in the conference room. Maya took the edges of her plaid shirt and faked a curtsey, turning to all the workers on the floor. "Thank you all for a wonderful picnic, but I'm afraid that the show is over!"

Lucas looked down at her confused and when he heard the loud rapid steps of two guards chasing after them, he took a hold of Maya's hand and pulled her towards the exit and just went with it, "Nelda and I had a great time, but we gotta' split!"

Maya laughed and waved goodbye at all the workers, confused looks on their faces, "John and I look forward to seeing all of you again at our next play!"

For some odd reason, Lucas couldn't help but laugh along with her, her loud cackling was absolutely infectious. They ran down a couple flights of stairs, their loud footsteps bouncing back and forth against the gray concrete walls. Loud yelling came from behind them when Lucas looked back over his should for just a moment before tugging on Maya's arm as he ran faster. "Come on, quick, they're gonna' catch us!"

"Wait wait _wait_!" Maya pleaded and so they did at the next landing. "I can't keep up, I'm going to fall, break my neck, and then we'll really be in trouble!"

Lucas looked between her and the two large men running down the stairs, they were about 2 flights of stairs behind him. He sighed and took a couple steps down, leaving Maya still on the landing. He turned his back to her then crouched down slightly, holding his arms behind him, "Okay, get on. I'm missing practice, so this will have to do. Hurry up!"

Without much hesitation, Maya hopped onto his back. He caught her with ease and held onto her legs securely. She was careful not to choke him, placing her arms on his shoulders and clasping onto her her wrist in front of him. "Giddy-up, cowboy! Let's go!"

They raced down the remaining flights of stairs with Lucas being careful not to trip, he didn't want to end up breaking both of their necks. When he reached the lobby floor, Lucas turned around and pushed open the door with Maya's back, eliciting a short string of curse words from her. He made a dash straight for the building's entrance.

"Move out of the way!" Both of them yelled. The people around them obliged, confused and a little bit frightened by the sight.

"Open that door!" Maya unclasped her hold on Lucas and placed a hand on his shoulder to steady herself as her other arm pointed towards one of the many doors that opened to the outside world. One man with a boy tie opened the door to let the two crazy teens out.

Lucas carried her just to the end of the sidewalk where they where met with her car.

Maya hopped down from his back and ran her way to the driver's side passing by the front of the car. "Get in, it's always unlocked!"

"Wait, what? That's not safe, Maya!" Lucas struggled with the door.

From inside, Maya started the engine, then looked at him through the window. She was speaking, but he couldn't hear her and so read her lips instead. "Lift and pull" she said. The frantic boy pressed the handle in to open the car door, lifted and pulled as she instructed.

Once he was in, Maya didn't waste one second and pulled out of their spot with neither for them strapped into their seats. " _One_ ," She started, eyes on the road both hands on the wheel, "No one would ever want to steal this rusty old bucket, but she's mine so I love her. And _B_ , this is New York City, no one cares about seat belts."

Lucas let out a loud laugh, amused by the fact that Maya had used two different ways of listing rather than focusing on Maya reading his mind.

Maya let a smile form on her lips, biting on her bottom one to stifle her own laughter. She rolled his eyes, allowing him his little laughing fit as she turned the radio on for the ride back home.

* * *

"Sorry about your practice." Maya pulled up to the school's football field, looking through the window to see that all the players were headed on their way out.

Lucas shook his head and gave her a smile, gathering his backpack and things from the backseat. "Nah, don't worry about it. We got our lab done and had a pretty great adventure." He got out of the car and leaned down to peer into the car, looking back at her again. "I'll see you tomorrow in class, partner!"

Maya laughed and rolled her eyes again, offering him a smirk. "Yeah, if you're lucky."

Lucas laughed back at her and closed the car door. When she drove off, he waved goodbye to the yellow Volkswagen that disappeared around the corner.

A hand clapped on Lucas' left shoulder, causing him to turn his head to see who it had belonged to.

"So… where'd ya' run off to, Lukey?" Zay looked up at him with, he was a couple inches shorter, with a smirk on his lips. Zay gripped his football sports bag in his free hand, backpack strapped onto him. He lifted his eyebrows up and down suggestively at him. "'Cause I know that ain't Riley. Her parents wouldn't let her ride in that broke thing."

Lucas shook his head and laughed, playfully hitting Zay square in the chest with the back of his hand. "Chill, man. Maya and I were just finishing up a lab for Chem."

"M'hmmmm," the dark-skinned boy continued to eye him. "I heard that before. I mean, hey man, I like her so.."

Lucas raised a brow, "Dude. Maya and I are just lab partners, barely friends. If you ask her, she'll say we're nowhere close to friends!"

Zay laughed and clapped his hand on Lucas' back again. "I'm just kidding, for real. I know you guys aren't anything. Just make sure Riley knows."

* * *

 **Author's notes:** I've had a couple of people in the reviews tell me that they have an inkling as to what movie this is based on. This chapter should have confirmed their hunches! If you don't know it, don't look it up and spoil it for yourself! And if you do know it, hopefully you'll stick along for the ride since I'm going to be adding things here and there that isn't from the movie.

This was a really quick update compared to my previous ones, but the amount of reviews really made me motivated to put out more, so hopefully it'll be the same for the next update.

Thanks for reading and leave a review if you'd be so kind!


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Notes:** Oooo, in the beginning this time, eh? Switching it up, lmao. Anyway, decided to let you guys know what you're in for in this chapter. It might be a little boring to some of you, but it's a chapter to see more into certain dynamics, how people feel about one another, and a bit of more character identity is what I would call it.

I added a little "Smackle Time" to describe a bit of her friendship with Maya. Also added a look into Riley & Lucas' relationship it's really itty bitty, but it's the itty bitty stuff that will add up. Also put in a look into Lucas' home life, his parents, and their goals for him. Only a small and major Maya and Lucas scene at the end, but hopefully you'll all still like it.

All that aside, i know it's finals week for the majority of you, so here's a little present for all your hard work studying, an update from one of the most inconsistent updaters ever. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 5**

* * *

Lucas sat at a dinner table, his french textbook opened in front of him. He was staring at the book's pages, looking at the words displayed. At the moment, the words looked like just mere letters all jumbled up together. There was a humming to his left, one that belonged to his girlfriend of nearly two years now. The tick-tock of the clock on the wall accompanied her hums and soon, the incessant tapping of his pen against the table. He sighed deeply and chewed on his lower lip in contemplation. He felt a squeeze on his left hand, to which he quickly turned his head. He was looking at Riley who in return was peering up with wide eyes full of concern.

"Lucas, is something wrong?"

"Uh," Lucas dropped his pen in the spine of his book and drew his hands away from the table, wiping his sweaty palms on his jean legs. "No, why would you think that?"

Riley smiled at him, a knowing smile, and placed a hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Because you've been staring at the same page for half an hour now. You know there's nothing you can't tell me, right?"

Lucas nodded his head and returned her smile with one of his own. He pressed his left thumb into the palm of his right hand and sighed again. "I hung out with Maya today. We were finishing up our Chem lab that's due tomorrow, but we ended up grabbing a bite to eat in the city," Lucas paused to see how Riley was reacting, which wasn't much at all. She was only nodding, encouraging him to go on, "And essentially I missed practice and then I came here right after."

Riley nodded once more at the end of his story and shifted on the bench-styled seat. She took a deep breath, visible by the rise and fall of her shoulders. The brunette then shrugged her shoulders and went back to taking notes. In a few moments, even her humming continued.

Lucas observed her for a few seconds before scratching the back of his head in confusion. "You're not gonna say anything? You're not mad?" He expected some kind of reaction out of her, but there was barely any.

Riley faced him again and shrugged her shoulders, head tilted to the right. "Why would I be? My dad wanted us to be friends with Maya, and that's what we're doing, obviously." The smile that was already on her lips widened. "I've come to find out that not everyone is like me, not eager to jump into groups. Maybe she just needs to dip her foot in the water, you know? Plus, she'd definitely feel more comfortable if she knew one of us and well, you're the only one that has class with her and Smackle said she barely talks to Maya anymore."

Lucas nodded at her slowly, soaking in everything she was saying. "So, you don't think me spending time with her outside of a class setting, just us two, is weird?"

Riley's smile faltered for just a second, that if Lucas had blinked he would have missed it. "No, of course not." That was a lie. "But _maybe_ you could invite her to a small group hang sometime!"

Lucas was a bit hesitant. He knew when Riley was lying, so he'd have to keep his distance from Maya unless it was absolutely necessary or if it was in a group setting. He had seen her jealous before, once with a girl named Missy, and honestly he wasn't really sure how that ended.

Lucas snapped out of his thoughts and nodded his head, fiddling with his pen in both of his hands. "Yeah, I'll do that."

The sounds of footsteps coming down the stairs forced Lucas and Riley to look towards the bottom of the steps. Down came a shorter woman, long light brown waves flowing over her shoulders and past her chest. She seemed to still be in her day clothes, jeans, a white top, and a simple peach cardigan. The woman gave the two a smile as she walked over to them. "You kids studying hard?"

Riley nodded, looking up at her mother with a huge smile. "Yeah. We were actually taking a break to talk about this girl at school. Dad wanted us to make friends with her and Lucas has her in her chem class, so we're trying to find a way to invite her to something. We tried to invite her to The Spot, but maybe that was kind of too big for a first hang out thing, you know?"

Riley's mom nodded and crossed her arms, trying to think of a way to help her daughter and friends. "Oh definitely. Well, how about the bakery? We're closing early next week on Thursday to celebrate your dad's birthday. It'll be small and very inviting. You should bring her!"

Riley had a huge smile on her face, nodding her head at everything her mother had just said. "Yea, that's sounds great, don't you think, Lucas?"

Lucas gave a kind of half smile and nodded, "Yeah, that could work, I could ask her."

The woman smiled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear then proceeded to place a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "Great! Also, Lucas, it's getting pretty late. You should start heading home before _Cory_ realizes you're still around."

Lucas laughed along with his girlfriend and her mom, gathering his belongings and throwing them into his backpack. "Yeah, I should be off, thanks Topanga."

Topanga gave him another smile and hugged him as he stood up to leave. "I'll see you next time, Lucas." With that, she went back up the stairs.

Riley stood up as well, walking Lucas to the door. She had grabbed his hand and laced their fingers together, though the trek to the door was short. "I'll see you tomorrow, right?"

Lucas turned to face her, one hand in hers the other holding onto his backpack. "Of course. Oh and remember, you _promised_ me that you'd come volunteer at the vet office after school."

Riley pursed her lips and nodded her head, "M'hmm." She leaned up to give to give him a goodbye kiss, pressing her lips against his.

It was a few seconds before they parted, Riley smiling widely, Lucas with his half smile. Lucas walked backwards slowly, until finally their hands separated and he was out, headed towards his car.

Riley closed the door behind her, sighing dreamily as she gathered her study materials.

* * *

Student's spilled into Cory Matthews' classroom as the bell for homeroom rang. Lucas ran in, dragged by the hand with Riley in front of him, tugging him along to their seats. Farkle was already there, waving over for them to come and join him. On Lucas' way there, still being dragged along, he noticed Maya at the front desk just as she had been on the first day of school, talking to Cory.

"So, how are you and _Shawny-boy_ , Cor?" Maya was leaned against Cory's desk, her messenger bag laying on the floor right by the door.

"We're great, he's actually coming next week to a party for my birthday!" The 40-something year old man was acting like a child, clapping his hands and nearly jumping in his spot with excitement oozing out of him.

The sight elicited a laugh from Maya, one hearty enough to cause her to toss her head back in amusement.

"Well what about you, Ms. Hart? Giving Mr. Hunter a hard time?" Cory sat in his seat now, just as the announcements started to play over the PA system.

Maya rolled her eyes, examining the dirt under her nails. "What? _Me_? Give him a hard time? Of _course_ not, I would never!"

In that moment, Cory gave Maya a knowing look while in return, he received an oh-too-innocent smile from Maya. If she smiled any sweeter, the clouds might have parted from the sky and a beam from heaven would have cascaded upon her.

"Alright, get out of here, Maya. You're already gonna be late to homeroom, hopefully you'll make it in time to your second period." Cory watched as the blonde teen girl walked out of his classroom, then went to taking role as the announcements continued.

* * *

Lucas rounded the sharp corner into the Chem lab and was surprised to see Maya already at their station. She was writing something in her lab notebook and was completely distracted when he took the lab stool beside her. "Did we miss something yesterday?"

If Maya was surprised, she definitely didn't show it. Instead, she spoke with her head down, hand still scribbling letters into the notebook. "No," she didn't look up at him as he tried to peer over her head to see what she was writing. "Just finishing up my conclusion." Maya took a couple more seconds to finish up and ended her sentence with an emphasized period, slamming her pen onto the blue lined paper.

"Alright class," Ms. Krueger was at the front of the classroom, sitting behind her desk. "Go ahead and pass up your notebooks."

Lucas swung his backpack to the front of him and took his notebook out of it. He quickly flipped through its contents, taking out some of the loose leaf papers he had stuck in there without care. Lucas handed his composition book to Maya, who in turn, passed it to the table in front of her.

"So," He began, leaning over to her to whisper as Ms. Krueger started with her lesson, "Doing anything next Thursday?"

Maya glanced at him from the right corner of her eyes, then quickly look backed down at the notes she was beginning to write down. She bit on her lower lip, then chewed on the eraser of her mechanical pencil. "I might be. Why, what's up?"

Lucas looked back and forth between their teacher at the board and Maya, making sure that Ms. Krueger wouldn't catch him speaking over her lecture. "I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out with me and my friends. Riley, Farkle, Smackle, and Zay."

Maya suddenly whipped her head to face him, blonde tresses flying through the air. "Zay? The dude that called me _Blondie_ , right?"

Lucas smiled nervously, finally writing down notes into his binder. "Yeah, that guy. So what do you say? It's a private little party over at Riley's mom's bakery for Mr. Matthews' birthday. You don't have to stay long, I just thought it'd be fun."

Maya stayed quiet for awhile and shortly after went back to taking notes. She didn't say anything for the rest of the class.

The bell had rung and Lucas had given up, the lack of answer from Maya obviously meant that she wouldn't be joining him and his friends for the little get-together. Now he'd have to tell Riley that their second attempt at making friends with her had failed and she'd be even more disappointed but even more determined to get through to the blonde gir.. He was about to bid Maya farewell, but when he turned to where he had assumed she would be packing up, she was already standing up facing him, as if she had waited for him to turn around. She was a little too close for comfort, and he was forced to stumble backwards, nearly trampling over someone.

Maya laughed at his misfortune and rolled her eyes. "Yes."

Lucas squinted his eyes at her, confused. "Yes?" He echoed.

Maya nodded once and started to walk out of the classroom. "Yes. I'll join you and your little group of friends."

Shocked, Lucas stood in place for about a full second until he caught up with her, holding his backpack in his hand. "Wait, really?"

Maya sighed and bit the inside of her cheek. "I said yes _twice_ now, Partner. Don't make me change my mind. "

Lucas stopped right outside the classroom when Maya turned to head the opposite way of the cafeteria. "Great! I'll text you the details!"

Like the first time he had met her, Maya kept on walking down the hall waving a goodbye without looking back.

* * *

Lucas sat on the green during lunch, finishing up his Sloppy Joe that he had gotten from the school cafeteria. Leaning against his back with her own was Riley, inspecting the flowers she had picked from the ground. Across from them was Smackle who was scribbling something down in her notebooks, Farkle watching over the notes she was taking, and Zay eating a bag of chips.

With a sigh, Smackle closed her notebook on the green grass and placed her pen on top of it. "Done." She wore a bright and proud smile on her lips.

Over her shoulder, Farkle gave a smile and nod of both approval and pride. "Wow, Smackle. You actually did it! You finished the notes for the rest of each of your classes."

"I'm sorry, she did _what_?!" Zay stared at Smackle with his eyes nearly popping out of his skull. His bag of chips was momentarily forgotten in his hand in the middle of his surprise. "I mean, one class? I totally get that. It's Smackle. But _all_ of them?!"

Smackle's smile grew wider as she nodded with her hands folded neatly in her hand. "Yes, Zay. I finished all the notes. I spoke with my teachers during summer break and I asked if I could receive the syllabus early. They all complied and I was able to get a head start. Now, I will have free time for extracurricular activities such as the debate team, newspaper club, the mathletes, and time to spend with friends."

Lucas' look on his own face mimicked that of Zay's. Slowly, the muscles in his face contorted to raise a brow, "Uh, Smackle. How do you just keep all of that stored in your brain?"

Smackle chuckled and shook her head, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose just slightly. "Lucas, it's not like I'm a computer or anything. It's all a matter of exercising the brain. Yes, I've finished all these notes," as if to add emphasis to what she was saying, Smackle flipped through the written pages in her notebook, "but that doesn't mean I'm done with it. I'll re-read these once the chapter of the textbook draws close and it'll refresh my memory. I swear, some of you think that I'm a robot or something!"

Zay shook his head and spoke with a mouth full of chips, "No, girl. We think that's your boyfriend."

Farkle rolled his eyes and threw a playful punch at Zay's arm. "I already proved to all of you that I'm a _real_ boy. You guys saw my birth certificate last year on my birthday!"

"Yeah…" Zay's voice trailed off, remembering the incident very vividly. "I lost twenty bucks that day."

Lucas laughed, holding his head up in the air rather high, "Yeah you did, to me!" Most of the group joined in his laughter, all except for Zay himself.

"Riley?" Smackle turned around to find that her brunette friend was behind her, a lap full of dainty little flowers.

"Yes?" The smile on Riley's lips forced dimples into her cheeks, humming softly as she combed her fingers through smackles hair.

"May I ask what you're doing exactly?" Smackle sat tense on the grass, hands back in her lap trying to see what it was that Riley was doing with her hair.

"I'm braiding flowers into your hair, now sit _still_!" Riley laughed as if it were obvious what she was doing.

"Oh." Smackle obeyed and sat still, back straight as she was still tensed up.

The boys watched the display in front of them, exchanging glances every so often. It wasn't normal that Smackle would allow such things, the girl wasn't very keen on unwanted or unconsented physicality. With curious eyes, they waited to see how it would turn out.

Riley continued to hum and sing out some 'La's as her fingers sectioned Smackle's chest-length black hair into three and crossed them over each other, pausing to put in flowers into the braid every so often. In the midst of it all, Smackle had finally relaxed her posture. She did, however, have her hands still in her lap and her brown eyes were peering to the very corners, trying to peek at Riley's work.

"Oh hey, Smackle?" Lucas leaned back, his back hitting the grass beneath him. His eyes were now squinted as he looked up into the bright blue sky.

"Yes?" Smackle patted the top of her head, trying to feel for anything that Riley may had done to it.

"You're friends with Maya, right?"

"Yes however we're not as close as we once were." There was a slight decrease of volume in her voice in the middle of the sentence. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, Riley and I were thinking that maybe inviting her to The Spot wasn't a great first idea to try and have her be our friends. I only really have chemistry with her, so I was wondering if you could be our…" Lucas bit on his lower lip, trying to find the correct wording. "Uhh. Like, our middle man? So she doesn't feel awkward being with a bunch of strangers when she comes to Mr. Matthews' birthday at the café next week."

"She said yes?!" Riley peeked her head out from behind Smackle, a huge toothy grin on her face. She was filled with excitement.

Lucas nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"Well, I can definitely try, Lucas, but I'm sure that you currently talk to her more than I do." Smackle winced when Riley tugged on her head a little too roughly. "That hurt!"

Riley laughed and patted Smackle's head, suggesting that it would all be fine.

Zay started to pick at the dirt underneath his fingers, letting himself into the conversation as he did so. "Smackle, why aren't you close with Blondie anymore if you don't mind my asking?"

"Mmmm," Smackle tilted her head just slightly towards the sky, looking up into it as she spoke cautiously. "Maya and I were friends when we were younger and it wasn't until we started high school that we started to communicate less. This was all before I met you four. I suppose you could say that I wasn't very…. Aware of how to pick up on other people's emotions and so while she would very gradually decrease our interactions with each other, I didn't think much of it nor did I ever ask her to elaborate on her actions."

Farkle gave his girlfriend's hand a very loving and proud squeeze. "Well, you're better at it now. Hopefully, you can _show_ her that you are."

Smackle's previous frown was replaced with a smile. She nodded and agreed with Farkle. "Yes. I feel awful for my lack of comprehension and sympathy. She deserves friends like you all, I would be happy to assist in making her a part of this group!"

From behind Smackle, Riley placed her hands on her shoulders, leaning around to face her somewhat. "Thanks, Smackle, but she also deserves a friend like _you_. Don't discredit yourself." She then swung the braid she had finished over Smackle's shoulder with accomplished smile. "What do you think?"

Smackle's shoulders drooped just slightly, finding herself even more relaxed now. She fingered the braid, brushing over the delicate flowers. "Wow, Riley. This is really pretty. Thank you." The girl smiled so wide, her cheeks lifted the glasses up the bridge of her nose just a smidgen.

"Awwh, shucks. You're welcome, Smackle. Farkle, take a pic of us!" Riley tossed her phone over to the boy genius who was now sitting across from them.

He caught it, almost dropping it a couple of times, and snapped the picture. "You look great, Isadora." He nodded his head as if to solidify his thoughts on his statement. He smiled at her, a the right corner of his lips lifting to a smirk when the compliment elicited a blush from his girlfriend.

* * *

With sweat covering his forehead, Lucas pushed the front door of his home open, yelling out into the two-story brick New York House, "I'm home!" The football team didn't have a full practice after school that day, but he and a few teammates, including Zay, decided to meet up and take part in a run together, just to keep their stamina and physical fitness up.

There was no answer, so he assumed that his parents were out in the backyard. His footsteps were heavy and audible as he walked across the hardwood floors, making his way towards the back of the house. Opening the glass sliding door, Lucas looked out to find his parents where he had assumed they were.

His father was sitting at a table on the deck, scrolling through some News Articles on his laptop. He had a glass of iced tea in his left hand, occasionally sipping from it. The man was still in his work clothes, a crisp white collared shirt tucked into light gray slacks, brown loafers at his feet. His tie around his neck was undone slightly. Noticing his son, Mr. Friar tore his eyes away from his screen and put down his glass. "Oh, hey. Welcome home."

"My baby's home?" A woman, looking no older than 36—though she was in her 40s— poked her head out from behind a tall potted plant. On her head, she had a sunhat to protect her from the late summer sun's rays. The sleeves of her white and black striped shirt were pushed up past her elbows and the knees of the woman's light blue overalls were stained with dirt. She walked up onto the deck and took her gardening gloves off, dropping them onto the wooden floor. Mrs. Friar engulfed her tall son in a tight embrace. "How was practice, dear?"

Lucas leaned down to his his mother's cheek just slightly, then stood back up to be a couple inches taller than her. "I didn't have practice today, just met up with some of the guys to run."

"That's my son, always working even on the days off." Lucas' dad was a spitting image of him, aside from the dark brown hair and the 4 inches of height he had on him. He got up from his seat at the glass table and gave his son a supportive pat on the back. "How was practice yesterday? Your mother and I were meeting with some business friends of mine for dinner and we didn't get the chance to see you get in. You were asleep by the time we got home."

"Oh, yeah…" Lucas looked around the backyard for a bit, dropping his backpack onto a chair nearby. He saw the expectant looks on his parent's face and immediately regretted even thinking of telling them the truth. "It was great. Managed to throw the ball over 20 yards without my arm hurting."

Lucas' wrapped an arm around Lucas' shoulder and gave him a shake, rubbing his arm up and down. "That's good! Seems like you've recovered really fast since your injury a couple months ago."

"Yeah, that was pretty bad. Glad you came out of it okay." Mr. Friar went back to sitting down at the table.

Mrs. Friar sent her husband a glare, one that Lucas had caught and one that his father ignored.

"Yeah, _anyway_ I just wanted to say hi before I go and pick Riley up. We're gonna go to help out at the vet today." Lucas picked up his backpack and turned around to head into the house again before he could see the disappointed look on their faces.

"Don't stay too long! You have homework and you don't want to be too tired for your football practice tomorrow!" He could hear his mother's words echo throughout the house as he headed up the stairs, the pressure to do well put on his shoulders.

He could also hear the loud and aggressive whispers exchanged between his parents.

" _Really_ , Derek Friar?" The blonde woman stared daggers into him. He wasn't paying attention to her however, which made her even more furious. "You couldn't show even the _slightest_ bit of happiness over how he got out of his arm injury!?"

Derek rolled his eyes. "He shouldn't have _had_ an injury in the first place. He's lucky it wasn't broken but only dislocated. He was careless and landed on his arm wrong when he was tackled." Derek's voice wasn't remotely close to a whisper, but it was low and calm enough to be considered a regular tone of voice, nothing out of the ordinary, which a hushed undertone. "And stop it what the 'baby', stuff Anna. Lucas is 18 now. He'll be going off to college this time next year, you can't continue to coddle him like a five year old."

Anna Friar crossed her arms one over the other. "Well at least I treat him like family and not like a business acquaintance! That is you _blood_ , Derek. He is your _only_ son. Stop treating him like you're trying to convince him to merge companies and like the boy you helped raised for 18 years of your life!"

Lucas slid the window in the hallway bathroom just enough to leave a small gap. He could still hear their conversation up on the second floor. Granted, the bathroom window was facing the backyard. Turning on the showerhead, he drowned out their voices and prepared for a quick rinse before heading over to Riley's. He stripped himself of his clothes, leaving his phone on the sink counter and hopped into the relaxing shower.

Lucas knocked on the mahogany door of the Matthews' residence, checking his black minimally faced watch for the time. When the door opened, the found a rather surprised looking Riley.

"Oh, Lucas, what are you doing here?" She has her brow raised, obviously confused. The door was wide open to allow Lucas the view inside. She had her Spanish notebook, textbook, and some flashcards neatly set up on the coffee table.

"You said you'd come help out at the vet's office today, remember?" Lucas looked at her, just as confused.

"Oh, yeah I know. But I sent you a text!" Riley took her phone from the back pocket of her bell-bottomed jeans, checking to see if her text even sent. "Yeah, see, right here! I said I couldn't make it today because my spanish teacher decided to tell us last minute we had a quiz tomorrow and so I asked Farkle to come over to help me study since he's already in AP Spanish."

Lucas took out his own phone, seeing the text message right there on the lock screen. "Oh, my bad. I must have been in the shower when you sent that. I kind of just rushed here right after and I didn't check my phone."

Riley smiled and shook her head, chuckling at her boyfriend's mistake. "That's okay. If you want, you could come and stay while Farkle helps me with Spanish." The tall brunette girl stepped aside to let him in.

Lucas shook his head, "I think I'll pass. I told Dr. Ruiz that I'd help him out tonight, so I don't wanna back out of it. Also, I don't think I'd be understanding much, I decided to take French, remember?"

Riley laughed and nodded her head, understanding. "Yeah, you're right. Anyway, I'll text you later tonight. And don't stay too long, you have homework and you don't want to be ti—"

"—Tired for tomorrow's practice, I know. Don't worry. I'll text you when I get home." Lucas leaned in to give his girlfriend a quick peck on the cheek before leaving, a slight annoyance in his voice with the pressure that he had felt her put on him.

* * *

Lucas was on his way to the Veterinarian Offices when he spotted the gauge on the gas was near E. He made a U-turn, going back towards the gas station he had seen about five minutes ago. When he pulled up to a pump, he noticed a very familiar rusted up Volkswagen Beetle and a just as familiar short blonde. He put his car in park and got out of his truck, walking over to her.

"Maya, hey!" Lucas laughed when Maya shrieked and gripped at her chest, one hand on pump nozzle as she placed it into the car's tank. He walked backwards to his own pump and went through the notions of putting gas into his tank.

Maya held the trigger up with both her hands as she held it in place, glaring at him. " _Damnit_ , Hopalong, I thought you were some sort of axe murderer or something."

He chuckled and rolled his eyes, leaving his pump in his tank and walking back over to her. "You know you can leave that in there, right?"

Maya's glaring didn't stop as she scoffed and shook her head slightly. "Yeah, _duh_."

She was lying and Lucas knew it. He laughed and put a hand on top of both of hers on the nozzle, closing his fingers of hers and then putting the latch up. When he let go, so did she, albeit a little hesitantly.

"I knew that." Maya looked at the nozzle in the gas tank, now fully pumping gas into her car without having her hold the trigger. "Anyway, what are you doing out here? Oh wait, I know." Maya, being ever so unpredictable, stood on the tips of her toes and placed the tips of her fingers on Lucas' head. She was tall enough to place her palm flat on his dirty blonde hair. "You're out here doing good samaritan things, like going to a homeless shelter to help distribute food or reading to kids in libraries. Maybe you're helping out old ladies in senior citizen homes!"

Lucas raised a brow at her, a little creeped out at how close she had gotten. Was she reading his mind through the tips of her fingers? " _No_... but close. I'm actually helping out the vet's office."

It was Maya's turn to raise a brow. "Seriously, Hopalong? You really _are_ the poster child."

Lucas went back to his pump to take the nozzle out of his car once his twenty dollars worth was done pumping. "Is hopalong gonna stick now? And what do you mean _poster_ _child_?"

Maya did the same, taking her nozzle out and putting it back into the station. She screwed back the lid of the tank and then closed the gas tank's door. "Like, the perfect dude. It's so cliché. Star of the football team, hottie, popular, gets pretty good grades in school, has the girl everyone dreams they could get, need I say more?"

"How do you know I get good grades? And you think I'm _hott_?" Lucas gave the short blonde a smirk.

Maya rolled her eyes in frustration. "I don't _think_ you're hott, Bucky. That's a fact, we can ask any of the people in our high school—regardless their sexuality— and they'll admit that you're attractive. And yes you get good grades, we're in AP chem together. _Obviously_ you've got something going up there." Maya pointed at his head.

Lucas laughed again, something he did a lot with her, and put his large hand on top of the girl's head, fingers combing through her blonde tresses. He watched as her eyes rolled up to try and see what he was doing. "My turn. Hmmm. You've got this bad ass attitude going for you and it works. Kind of existential, really into the whole "I-don't-give-a-fuck' kind of thing. You don't really mind what people have to say about you which is kind of admirable—"

"Thanks."

"—I'm not done. Excuse you." Again, Lucas chuckled as Maya rolled her eyes. "So, you're probably getting gas to go into the city to meet up with your in-college-boyfriend who probably wears leather jackets and is in some hipstery band. Am I anywhere close?"

Maya sighed, biting on her lower lip to hold in her laughter. She took Lucas' wrist to take his hand off her head. "No, but I am going into the city and I _do_ have a 'date' with a man that likes to play old school rock on the jukebox when I beat his ass at pool." She said the word 'date' with air quotations around them.

"Oh," Lucas looked at Maya, not sure of what to make of what she had just told him. Was he right? Did she have a date? Or was she just meeting up with a friend? Maybe her dad? Smackle did say he wasn't in the picture, but maybe that's why it was a quote-un-quote "date". It was possible that Maya and her father were just meeting to catch up. As curious as he was, he didn't pry. "Well, have fun, I guess? I'll see you tomorrow in chem."

Maya nodded and got into her car. She started the ignition and poked her head outside of her window, looking back at him by his truck. "Thanks. Have fun at the vet's. Don't lose a finger or anything, don't want you—"

"Let me _guess_ ," he called over to her, speaking loud enough to be heard over the horrible sound her car's engine was making. "Don't want me to be injured for football."

Maya laughed and shook her head. " _No_ , I was gonna say that we don't want you pushing all the lab work on me because you broke your widdo finga' and you can't hold the beaker straight. But anyway, see ya' tomorrow, Hopalong!"

Lucas shook his head and laughed to himself, climbing into the driver's seat of his truck. He started the ignition and made his way to the vets office, opposite the direction Maya had drove off in. "Huh," he absent-mindedly smiled when he realized that Maya was the first one that day to bring up football to him without managing to put pressure on him for some odd reason.

* * *

 **Author's Notes:** So... What did you guys think? I actually kind of liked the bit with Riley putting flowers into Smackle's hair. I did a hefty amount of planning with my a friend of mine for the future of this fic. Yeah, it's based on a movie, but there will be slight differences and I'm actually really excited to share them with you!

Let me know what you think/what you would like to see in future chapters. Smaya dynamic? Rilaya dynamic? Larkle? Some Smarkle? Zaley friendship? Zaya banter? Maybe even a sneak peak into some Riarkle chemistry.

Leave a nice little review with all of your comments, questions & concerns and I'll be sure to address them without giving too much away if you haven't seen the movie this is based on, I really don't want to spoil it!


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note** : Hi! This took a bit, getting busy with work, but I got this out!

A little of a heartfelt Smaya scene, and then her proper introduction to the group, Match-Maker-Riley-Matthews, a little feud over who gets Farkle, and Lucas offers Maya a ride home. :)

 **Disclaimer** : Note my plot, a couple of my own scenarios that I worked into the plot, but not mine. Based off a movie that I really don't want to spoil, so if you know it, keep it on the hush hush! :P

Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

* * *

The day was overcast. Clouds were in the sky and there was talk on the weather channel about rain in New York in the beginning of September. The only reason Lucas remembered this tidbit of information was because his mother told him to be careful at football practices if it were to rain. His father commented on how slippery the field could get and to make sure he didn't wind up with another dislocated arm. At the time, Lucas clenched his jaw and nodded before quickly taking his truck to school. He didn't want to be caught in the rain if it actually did start to pour.

It was now lunch time and the clouds seemed dark and heavy which meant that Lucas and his four other friends were inside the cafeteria with the majority of the student body. It was humid and extremely stuffy and all Lucas wanted to do was get out of there. "Ya'll wanna go take a walk around the halls? I'm getting a little claustrophobic up in here," Lucas looked at his friends, waiting for an answer.

Riley turned her attention to him, away from the notebook she was focused on and shook her head with a small frown, dimples creasing her cheeks. "I can't, sweetie. I have to work on some Calculus homework and Farkle offered his help." She placed a hand on his shoulder, tilting her head to the side in apology.

"It's okay, but good call. I probably wouldn't have been much help, and Zay, well…" Lucas's eyes glanced at Zay who was busy eating his lunch which consisted of a turkey leg and some mashed potatoes.

Zay lifted a brow at his best friend, "Yeah? Zay's what? Come on out now, say it!"

Lucas laughed and scratched nervously at the back of his neck, "Man, you know you're not that great in math."

Zay raised broth of his brows now and nodded his head, taking a bite from the turkey leg. "I mean, yeah you right. That's why I'm taking Stats and not Calc like the rest of you guys."

Farkle sighed and looked towards Zay, his pen still on Riley's notebook where he was pointing at an equation, "I told you Zay, I could have tutored you, too." The only response Zay gave was a shrug of his shoulders.

Over the loud noise of the busy cafeteria, Smackle spoke, "I'll go with you Lucas."

"For real?" Lucas asked; Smackle was the last person he expected to join him.

Smackle nodded and pushed her chair back, the screech barely even audible what with the commotion going around them. "Yes, I have someone I wanted to talk to anyway, so you can accompany me to the art room." As she stood up, she flatted the slight creases in her navy blue circle skirt, pulling on the tops of her black knee-high socks.

Lucas followed Smackle's actions and got out of his chair, placing a hand on both Farkle and Riley's shoulders. "Alright, well we'll be back later."

Riley placed her hand upon his hand with a smile, then went back to trying to decipher Farkle's explanations and the equations in front of her. Zay just gave a nod of his head in acknowledgement along with a point of his spoon towards the tall dirty blonde haired boy.

Smackle waited for Lucas right outside the cafeteria. He walked through the double doors and with a slam, the loud ruckus was muffled and sealed behind them. The hallway was a much quieter place - every so often there would be a couple people they'd pass by either at their lockers or just walking aimlessly around during the lunch period. Lucas glanced at Smackle to his right, eyes downcast at her short stature. The shuffling of the soles of her flats was the most prominent sound resounding in the hallway.

Lucas was never particularly close to Smackle. She was his best friend's girlfriend and his own girlfriend's best friend. When Lucas had moved to New York and became good friends with Riley and Farkle, Smackle was already acquainted with them. Like most of the school, he knew that Smackle was an absolute genius. She was in all AP classes and a lot of scholar-based clubs, but with time, he found out about the girl's Asperger's syndrome. Ultimately, it didn't change the group's view on her, they treated her no different. A friend was a friend.

Smackle was leading the way to wherever they were going, Lucas was just going along because he needed the air. They walked down the very long hallway to two wooden doors that were not primed. There were flyers of all kinds of colors either stapled or taped onto the door, many with information of school events and art shows. Smackle pushed one of the doors open, "She's probably in here if I recall correctly."

"She who?" Lucas followed behind the dark brunette girl a little confused. When he entered the room, the smell of paint, ceramic clay, and freshly cut wood filled his nostrils. It appeared that he was in the large art room that housed all three art classes: painting & drawing, ceramics, and wood shop. The three classes were separated by maneuverable sliding walls and all the way in the back was where Smackle was headed. In tow, Lucas noticed that the art room wasn't at all empty. There were a couple of people working on their wood shop projects, evident by the dust coming from the wood saws they were using. There was one girl at the ceramics wheel, spinning her clay.

"Lucas, are you coming?" Smackle waited patiently by the last divider between the ceramics and art rooms.

"Yeah, my bad!" Lucas jogged a couple of paces to catch up with her and that's when he noticed that in the far corner was a very familiar short, blonde-looking female sitting at an easel, back faced towards the door. " _Maya_?"

Maya turned around, green paint smudged across her brow with a painter's palette in her left hand. If she was startled by their presence, she didn't show it. Instead, she had a smile on her face looking from Smackle, to Lucas, back to Smackle. "Oh, hey, Iz! What brings you and Cowboy to my little corner of the school?"

Smackle had her hands clasped together in front of her, a serious expression stamped on her face. "I would like to talk. Lucas is here because he was feeling light headed in the cafeteria. I didn't want him fainting."

Lucas shot Smackle a glare, feigning hurt. "Really, Smackle? You're ruining my street cred!"

Maya chuckled to herself and shook her head. "Alright, well grab a seat and make yourself at home. Ms. Kossal's studio es su studio."

Lucas spotted a couple of chairs stacked up together against the wall nearby and grabbed two, one for him and the other for Smackle. He sat down and laced his fingers together between his legs, feeling a little awkward.

Smackle sat down as well, tucking her skirt behind her as she did so. She then made a face, and gave a lopsided smile. "That is not how the saying goes, Maya, but thank you."

Maya only gave Smackle a smile in response.

"Okay, well, where shall I begin?" Smackle sat straight, looking straight into Maya's eyes while trying to find the right words to say. "I would like to apologize for my lack of sympathy towards your situation."

"Whoa, wait, is this a conversation I should be here for? This sounds like some deep girl talk…" Lucas looked between the two, shifting awkwardly in his seat.

Smackle raised a brow at Lucas, "I don't see why you aren't allowed to be here, but I suppose if it makes you uncomfortable since males tend to not deal well with expressions of emotions, you may leave."

Maya laughed, amused by Smackle's choice of words.

"Yeah… I'll just wait for you outside." Lucas stood up and placed his chair back on top of the others against the wall. He could feel Maya's eyes on him the whole time, causing the tiny hairs on the back of his neck to stand. He waved at her and Smackle before turning to walk away. Once he was sure they weren't watching him leave any longer, he took a sharp turn to hide behind one of the dividers and hid behind it. Now, he wasn't much for eavesdropping, but he was curious as to what Maya and Smackle's relationship was with one another, especially since he didn't know much about Smackle before he had joined high school.

"Anyway," Smackle began, "Like I was saying before. I would like to apologize for my lack of sympathy and for being distant. Now, I know that it is not the way I should have handled things, especially with a person whose friendship I valued very greatly."

Maya shook her head again, placing her brush down on the easel and reaching her hand out to Smackle's shoulder. "Izzy, I don't blame you for it. It was a tough time and I probably wouldn't have known what to do if I were put in a similar situation. Plus, the way I deal with things is to push people away, so if anything, it was my fault."

Smackle clenched her hands into fists in her lap. "Don't say that. It is not your fault. If there is anything that I have learned from my friends, it is that we should never invalidate the ways that we may feel."

Maya slowly nodded and gave the girl a small smile. "That's a very good lesson they've taught you, Izzy. You've got some great friends there." Maya reached for her paintbrush on the easel and started to paint on the canvas again, layering some blue paint on top of the green.

Smackle nodded and raised her eyebrows as she spoke, a large smile on her face. "Indeed, they are great. They are wonderful, Maya, and they would be wonderful to you as well."

"Izzy," Maya sighed and placed her paintbrush back down, turning her body to face Smackle. "You know that—"

"That's irrelevant, Maya." Smackle cut her off mid sentence, which was very unlike her. "I _implore_ you to listen to what I have to say." When Maya didn't say anything, she continued. "I deeply regret not being there for you in your time of struggle; when your father left. During the time in which we didn't talk, the emotions I felt were very conflicting. Being the way that I am, I was not sure if going to comfort you was the right choice, especially since you yourself said that you typically close yourself off to others. I made friends with Riley and Farkle during the summer and soon after, Zay and Lucas. They are amazing friends that have helped me understand the majority of the things that I feel as well as what others feel and how to deal with certain emotions. They are the reason that I am here today, because for a long time I have been missing our friendship. If it is okay with you, I would like for us to become friends again. In addition, I would like you to become a part of our group. As they say: the more the merrier. So please tell me that you will be attending Mr. Matthews' party at Mrs. Matthews' bakery next Thursday."

A small knowing smile crept its way onto Maya's lips. "That's what this is about?"

Smackle nodded, "Yes. We thought that you would feel more comfortable knowing a friend at the party, but do not let all of that make you think that I don't value the friendship between us. I have missed Izzy and Yaya adventures." Smackle let a huge grin escape her.

"Isadora Smackle!" Maya looked around the room, as if she were trying to find anyone that could have heard their conversation. Little did she know that Lucas was still behind the wall, smirking at the little nickname.

Smackle shrugged her shoulders. "If you call me Izzy, then I am allowed to call you Yaya. It is only fair."

The bell rang before Maya could say anything else. Lucas stepped out from behind the divider and cleared his throat, grabbing the attention of the two girls. "Smackle, we should head back, I was just coming to get you."

The brunette girl stood off her chair and nodded her head, straightening her skirt. "Thank you, we should." Smackle turned back to look at Maya, give her a less than awkward hug. "I shall see you Thursday then?"

Maya returned the girl's hug and nodded, trying to keep the paint off of Smackle. "I'll see you Thursday."

Smackle walked out of the classroom, expecting Lucas to follow her. He lingered for a moment longer, eyes locked with Maya's, a glare on her expression and a smirk on his.

"How long were you listening?"

"Like I said, just came back to get Smackle." Lucas was lying and it was getting difficult for him to not laugh.

"Good." Maya turned around to place her brush in the sink.

"See you later, _Yaya_!" Lucas laughed and jogged quickly out of the art studio, laughing even louder when he heard a frustrated grunt and a crash that could only come from her palette dropping into the sink.

* * *

Lucas was leaning against the bakery's counter, a cup of sprite in his hand. He was talking to Riley and Zay about how great the bakery looked. There were streamers coming from the corners of the room towards the center to join into one ball of yellow and white streamers arranged and bunched together to look like a huge pom pom . There were yellow and white balloons scattered everywhere, two of each color taped to the door frame. A cake sat on the counter, three tiers high. Needless to say, the theme colors of the party were yellow and white as they were also the colors of the cake with "Happy Birthday Cory!" written in icing.

"Great, job Riles. This place really turned out looking neat." Zay was sitting on the of the stools, picking at the spaghetti on his plate.

"Thanks! My mom and I were planning this for awhile now. Well… Actually, my dad did. He discretely told us he wanted a surprise party with yellow and white themed balloons everywhere." Riley laughed, looking over her shoulder to see her dad chatting away with Topanga and Shawn. They were soon joined by Farkle's parents as well. She took Lucas' hand gently in hers and started swinging their joined hands back and forth.

Lucas smiled and placed his cup on the counter. "Yeah, that's sounds just like your dad. But still, I'm really surprised of how well this turned out."

Riley smiled brighter and tilted her head to the side. Then, as if she remembered something urgent, her head snapped towards Farkle and Smackle who were sitting on the couch towards the doorway. "Hey, didn't you say Maya was sure to come Smackle?"

Smackle nodded her head, sitting up straight on the couch as she usually did. She glanced at the watch on her wrist, sighing when she noted the time. "Yes, she said she would be here by now. I'm not sure what could be taking her so long."

Farkle leaned forward in his seat beside his girlfriend, placing his hands on his knees. "Maybe she decided not to show up."

Zay nodded, agreeing. "Yeah, maybe."

Lucas shook his head, "Don't worry. She'll show." He reassured them.

There was a knock at the open door. A blonde head ducked in shyness as the girl stepped in. A couple eyes in the room flew to her, curious as to whom the knock belonged to. Maya was dressed in a velvet looking red blazer, ripped blue jeans, and a white lacy shirt. She, of course, had her heels on to make her three inches taller than she usually was.

"Maya, you came!"

Needless to say, Riley and her friends were a little more than shocked to hear those words coming from her father. They expected Riley to be the one excited, after all she had tried so hard to become her friend. Instead, however, Cory Matthews, the newly turned 43 year old greeted Maya with open arms.

"Happy birthday, Matthews." Maya struggled to get her words out, crushed by how tightly her history teacher was hugging her.

"I'm so glad you showed up! Everyone's here, Shawn's here, there's food and cake, and Shawn's here! Did I tell you Shawn is here?" Cory guided her over to Shawn and Topanga, placing his hands on her shoulders, ushering her over to his wife and best friend. "Look, Maya's here!" Cory's face was absolutely ecstatic. Had it been anyone else, Lucas would have thought that he was overreacting, but he knew that when it came to the Matthews, both Riley and Cory were very animated people.

"Hey, kid." Shawn placed a hand on Maya's shoulder. "How you holding up?" The look between the two made it seem like they had known each other for awhile. Lucas wasn't the only one that picked up on this. Riley was soon joining the group, her index finger pointed upwards as if she was signaling that she would be interrupting their conversation.

"Hi, Maya!" Riley grabbed both of Maya's hands in her own, smiling really wide at the girl. "I'm really glad you came, Smackle and Lucas said you would so I was really excited, but I was also a little nervous and scared because I didn't know if you'd actually show up because well I get that sometimes I can come off a little too strong," As Riley spoke, Maya was slowly inching her hands away from Riley's, trying to break free of the brunette's hold as subtly as possible. "Oh, I'm doing it now, aren't I?" Riley looked around the room, an embarrassed smile on her face.

Everyone in the room that she recognized nodded. Poor girl, Lucas noted that Maya seemed like she was ready to just run out of the bakery. To ease up the tension that formed, he walked over towards the group and placed a hand on Riley's shoulder, who nearly jumped out of her skin from surprise. She relaxed when she realized that it was only him and placed her hand on top of his.

"Hey," Lucas smiled as he looked down at the short blonde.

Maya looked at him, her eyes lingering on him for a moment before looking back at Riley, then back at him. "Hi," she finally said. There wasn't much said between them, the held each other's eyes for a moment, the right corner of Maya's lips twitching upwards just slightly, forming a ghost of something between a smile and a smirk.

"So," Shawn cleared his throat beside him. "Maya, are these your... _friends_?" He stuffed his hands in his pockets, raising a brow at the girl. It was very evident that there was something that he was implying when the older man said, 'friends'.

"Uhh…" Maya hesitated, her eyes looking over the bunch. There was Smackle and himself that she'd be able to maybe consider friends, but then there was Riley who really wanted to be her friend, Zay who had but one conversation with her, and Farkle who he wasn't entirely sure even spoke a word to her. Maya gave a shrug of a shoulder and emphasized it with her hand gesturing to the group of friends. "Sure, I guess?"

To say that Riley was ecstatic was an understatement. The tall girl started to jump up and down, grabbing ahold of Maya's hands again. "Yay! We'll be best friends, I can already tell!"

"Hey!" Farkle dramatically pouted his lip. "What about me?!"

Without dropping Maya's hands, she turned her head around to look at Farkle. "You can have more than one best friend…" Her eyes were wide and innocent, the look she gave whenever she needed to get out of quite a predicament.

"Uhh," Lucas scratched at the back of his neck, noticing how awkward Maya looked with her hands still held onto rather tightly. He face was begging for her hands' freedom. "Maya, have you eaten yet?"

"Come on, Blondie" Zay held out his arm to the girl, which she took, and lead Maya towards the table of food in the far corner. "Let's get some food in ya'!"

"So, Uncle Shawn, how do you know Maya?" Riley asked the slightly taller male.

Shawn Hunter's eyes looked to Cory, as if seeking an answer, but Cory quickly turned away and joined Zay and Maya by the food. Left alone to answer his best friend's daughter, Shawn cleared his throat and ran a hand over his short beard. "Well you see," he began to rock back and forth, bouncing on the tips of his shoes onto the heels. "I… know her mom."

Lucas wasn't sure if that was a lie, or something that Shawn just didn't want to admit.

Riley Matthew's face lit up, placing her hands on Shawn's arm. "Oh, _do_ you? You know, Uncle Shawn, I hear Maya's mom is _single_."

Lucas laughed as he watched his notorious match-maker of a girlfriend lead Shawn towards the seat by the window. He was left alone with Farkle and Smackle at this point. Farkle had an arm thrown of Smackle's shoulders, while she wa stirring a cup of ice in her hand.

"You know," Smackle began, "Maybe Riley will be able to set Mr. Shawn and Mrs. Hart up. After all," she placed a hand of hers in Farkle's, "She was able to get Farkle and I together and now look at us!" Smackle's cheeks rose with a huge grin on her lips.

Zay and Maya soon joined the three of them, both with full plates in their hands.

"Wow," Maya's mouth was full of food as she spoke, and pointed to her plate with the fork in her hand. "This bacon mac and cheese is great, who made this?!"

Farkle raised a up a hand, a smug expression on him. "That would be me."

"Wait fo'real?" Zay also had a mouth full of the mac and cheese. "You're smart _and_ you cook?" He raised a dark brow at the boy genius then looked at the girl on his arm. "You better keep him on a leash, 'cause even I want him now."

Smackle glared at him and shook her head. "Zay, _please_. You could never compare to what I have to offer him."

"And what would that be?"

"My intellect, obviously." Smackle smirked at the boy.

"You callin' me _stupid_ , Smackle?" Zay gave her a deadpanned look.

"Well I'm certainly _not_ calling you as intelligent as I am." The smirk on Smackle's lips grew.

Lucas and Maya stood by each other, watching the two friends bicker with Farkle between them, awkwardly caught in the crossfire.

Maya leaned over towards Lucas, speaking under her breath. "Do they always fight?"

Lucas leaned down, speaking at the same volume she was. "Honestly? Kinda', but it's always fun and games. Zay just likes to pick fights with people, he's definitely a trouble maker. When we first met Smackle, she couldn't quite understand that Zay's way of showing his affection towards his friends was by picking on them, but now she's been able to throw stuff right back at him."

Maya nodded and watched them, picking at her food. "Interesting."

"Yeah…" Farkle had joined the two, finally freeing himself from Smackle's hold as she continued to battle with Zay over who was more suited to be with Farkle. "Except, I'm not quite sure she knows Zay's joking right now." The tall lanky boy stuffed his hands in his pockets, chuckling lowly.

Maya looked up at the taller brown haired boy, then back at the two arguing. "So… you're Iz's boyfriend?"

The boy in question nodded his head, then stuck his hand out for a handshake. "Yes ma'am, I'm Farkle Minkus: Boy Genius!"

Maya's eyes went Farkle's extended hand, to him, back to his hand until she finally reached out her hand with her plate in it. They awkwardly fist bumped. "Well, I know you probably haven't heard much of me from Izzy. Or anyone really. I like to fly under the radar. Not getting noticed and not drawing unnecessary attention to me is kind of my thing. But Isadora and I go a long ways back and if she ends up hurt, I'm going straight for you, _Einstein_."

Farkle threw his hands up, creating space between him and Maya. "Trust me, I mean no harm. I'm very fond of Smackle and I think she's fond of me, too. So no one's getting hurt here."

"You better make sure." Maya watched Farkle through narrows and skeptical eyes.

"Also," Farkle added, a smile plastered onto his lips. "I hate to be the one to break it to you, but the whole 'not drawing unnecessary attention' to you stopped the moment you decided to be friends with Riley Matthews."

Maya's confused and slightly panicked eyes went straight towards Lucas, who had the same smile on his expression. "What do mean? What does he mean? Partner, you tell me what he means right now."

Lucas laughed and placed a hand on Maya's shoulder then on Farkle's, drawing them close to him. "Riley has a tendency to make a big deal about certain things. She makes your problem her problem and then starts to solve it."

Maya shook her head when she didn't quite understand, her plate of food completely forgotten in her hand. "What do you mean by that?"

Lucas nodded his head towards where Shawn and Riley still sat at. "Well, Shawn told us how he knew you—"

"—How he knows me?" Maya repeated.

"Your mom, right? He said that he knew your mom. He didn't really say how he knew her though." Farkle piped in.

"Oh, well.. yeah." Maya's hesitated a little before answering then proceeded to nod her head slowly.

"Well," Lucas started up again, "Like I was saying, Shawn told us that he knew you and your mom. So, Riley being Riley, kind of connected the dots."

"What dots?" Maya raised her brow, utterly confused. She had no clue what dots there were to connect.

"The way Riley's head works," Farkle sighed, but stared at the brunette girl at the window with a smirk, "She remembered what Smackle said when she kind of spilled out that your dad left.." His voice trailed off and looked back at Maya to gauge her reaction.

"It's okay. I wasn't really trying to hide it anyway. No one asked, and well… It's not exactly something I want to shout out to the entire world." Maya scrunched up her face as she said the last bit, nodding her head sardonically.

Farkle nodded his head once, then continued, "Riley also knows that Shawn's still single, so…" He let her figure out the rest.

"Riley's trying to hook Shawn up with my mom." Maya didn't state it so much as a question than it was a declaration.

Both of the boys beside her nodded.

Before Maya could protest the idea, Zay and Smackle joined them as well.

"Farkle," Smackle stood beside her boyfriend, intertwining her fingers together as they held hands. "Zay and I have come to an agreement!"

"What?" Farkle looked between his girlfriend and Zay, a confused look on his face.

"I still have custody over you, but Zay will get you every other weekend, unless dates that are made with either of us are planned out and told to the other two weeks in advance. Come holidays, he gets you on Thanksgiving, I get you the rest of the time, except Kwanza, where you will be spending the holiday with Zay and his family."

"Smackle, what?! I'm not a child!" Farkle furrowed his brows together as he looked at his girlfriend in frustration. "And _you_!" Farkle turned around a full 180 degrees, pointing at Zay. "You went along with this! Why did you let this happen?!"

Zay fell back onto the couch, grabbing his sides as he laughed.

Lucas was trying his hardest to hold in his own laughter, hiding a couple of the chuckles that escaped him behind his closed fist. He coughed a couple of times into it, trying to keep his composure as he attempted to ask with a serious face, "Hold _on_ , Smackle. I should have some time with Farkle too, he is one of my best friends."

Maya couldn't help but laugh at the situation. She cleared her throat and pointed her fork at Farkle, "I know I'm new and everything, but could I get him at least two days of the whole year?"

"Lucas, _really_? Maya, you too?!" Farkle looked at all of his other friends, his hands out in front of him, begging for someone to stop joking.

Smackle rolled her eyes and sighed. "Look, we'll set something up, type it all out, and then we can proceed to sit down together and discuss specifics when we look over the contract."

Maya, Zay and Lucas all burst out laughing while Farkle gave a loud grunt of frustration.

* * *

"Bye, guys!" Zay waved as he walked towards his car parked down the street, saying his goodbyes to his friends.

Farkle and Smackle slowly started to walk up the stairs onto the sidewalk. He had his arm around Smackle, guiding her towards his own car. "Smackle and I are going to head home, too. I told my parents that I would be home by now when they left earlier. I'll see you all tomorrow at school."

It was now just Riley, Lucas, and Maya standing out of Topanga's.

"Well," Riley smiled and moved towards the two others. "I have to get inside and help my parents clean up!" She gave Maya a warm hug, one that Maya returned, a lot less stiff that earlier in the night. "Thank you so much for coming, Maya!"

"Yeah, no problem. I'll see you at school." Maya gave the brunette girl a genuine smile.

"I'd really like that!" Riley smiled at Maya back then gave Lucas a small peck on the cheek. "I'll definitely see you tomorrow, my Prince Charming!"

Lucas gave her a slight smile and nodded, giving the girl a tight hug, "Of course, Princess."

Riley turned and headed back into the bakery. When Lucas turned back around, he found that Maya wasn't where he last saw her and instead, she was up the stairs, looking down at him with a smirk on her pink lips.

"Oooo, _Prince Charming_ ," she mocked.

Lucas shook his head and made his way up the stairs to where Maya waited for him. "Yeah, well at least it's not _Yaya_."

Maya rolled her eyes and stuffed her hands into her jacket pockets as they began to walk down the block. "Don't call me that."

"Oh, but why _not_?" Lucas took a couple faster steps in front of her then turned on his heel to face her as they continued their trek with him walking backwards.

"It's reserved for Izzy." She refused to look at him, looking straight ahead. "Unless you want me to start calling you Prince Charming." When Lucas stopped dead in his tracks, Maya laughed and raised her brows, walking around him. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

They continued walking until they hit the corner of the street. When neither of them took a step off the sidewalk, Lucas looked down at the blonde head of hair beside him. "So… do you need a ride home? Where do you live? It's pretty late to be walking."

Maya looked up at him, squinting her eyes slightly. "It's not that late, but I'm not walking home. I drove."

"Oh…" Lucas looked around awkwardly. He wasn't sure if he should say his goodbye and then leave her on the sidewalk, or if he should walk her to her car.

After a while of silence, Maya spoke, "You know that big periwinkle blue ranch house off the 5?"

"Yeah, with the white picket fence on the corner!" Lucas nodded and placed his keys back in his pocket. He had originally decided to part ways, thinking it was appropriate since Maya wasn't going to say anything. When she spoke, however, he chose the other option.

"Yup, that's me." Maya smiled up at Lucas, then looked him up and down, noticing his hand in his pocket. She chuckled to herself lowly, then chewed on the bottom of her lip. "You can go, you know. You don't have to wait for me to go to make sure I get into my car safely. It's not like this is a bad neighborhood." She held her hand out, gesturing to the street they were on.

The street was lit well with no out or flicker street lamps. There were no creepy alleyways and in fact most stores around the area still had their lights on, including the signs. It wasn't a cold winter's night either, it was late in the summer which meant that it was nearly 8 and the sun was just setting. There were even people still walking outside, taking their dogs out or just having a stroll. In fact, there was even a couple with a baby stroller that walked by the two of them just a moment ago.

"Yeah, you're right. But I just feel like I should walk you to your car." Lucas shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, Riley would be _pretty_ upset to find out that her new best friend got kidnapped by an axe murderer." Lucas added on.

Maya scoffed and started to walk towards her car, Lucas following beside her. "Really? An axe murderer? Come on now, Cowboy, I think an axe murderer would just kill me on the spot instead of going through all the trouble to kidnap me."

Lucas laughed and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He could see the rusted yellow bug in the distance. "You have a point there."

When they reached her car, Maya took her keys out and unlocked the driver's door, sliding into her seat. "Plus, I could definitely handle myself. One kick to the groin and I'd be the one with the axe."

"So _you're_ actually the Axe Murderer!" Lucas laughed and placed his left hand on the roof of her car, his left on the car door.

Maya laughed with him and shrugged her shoulders. "Mr. Friar, I can neither confirm nor deny that accusation of yours." She smiled up at him while he leaned over a bit as they had their conversation. "Anyway, I got to get going. Gotta make sure I reach my mom before Shawn calls her to tell her about Riley's wedding plans for them."

"Alright," Lucas stood back up, taking his right hand off the car. "You get home safe, Ms Hart." He shut her car door and waved goodbye to the rusted yellow bug that drove away.

Lucas smiled when he saw her look at him in the rear view mirror.

"Note to self," Lucas spoke into the night air, walking all the way back to the corner that they turned at and even passed that. He had walked Maya the complete opposite direction from where his car was parked just to make sure she'd get there okay. " _Never_ give that girl an axe." Lucas laughed at his own joke inside of his truck as he drove home.

* * *

 **Author's note** : What do you think? I feel like it slowly fell off during the birthday party, but it picked up afterwards. I can tell you right now that Smackle is one of my favorite character's to write, but for some odd reason I'm finding it hard to write Farkle. I suppose I need to really develop his character in my head more. :P Can you see Lucas' slightly shift towards Maya here? :)) I'm excited to really get things going!

As always, I hope you enjoyed enough to leave a comment to let me know what you think/what you'd like to see!


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note** : Been awhile. I thought I'd have more time during the summer but I feel like I have less now. Anyway, I did my best to get this out to you guys. For the longest time, it sat 1/4 written because I just couldn't get myself to do anything with it. Then at 3am in the morning, I went to typing. So I'm super sorry if this isn't what you're expecting. I'm kind of setting things up in this chapter.

 **Disclaimer:** Not my plot, couple of my scenarios. Based off a movie that I won't name just because I don't want to spoil anything.

Important note at the end, btw. :)

* * *

 **Chapter 7**

* * *

Since that get together at Topanga's for Mr. Matthews' birthday celebration, Maya had been more present around Lucas' group of friends. It wasn't anything drastic. She didn't join in all the time, she definitely didn't join them every friday night to go out to the Spot, but some days Maya would have lunch with them after a little coaxing from Smackle.

Today was one of those days.

Maya stood at one of the ends of the table, Smackle beside her. Maya held a tray of food in her hands, a ghost of a smile on her pink lips. "Hey, guys." Her voice was softer than usual, a tad bit lacking in confidence, still a little hesitant and withdrawn around the group.

Smackle smiled at Maya before greeting everyone at the table and taking her rightful seat next to Farkle who had his nose in his textbook, a hand of his mindlessly stuffing chips into his mouth while he studied.

"Hi, Maya!" Riley eagerly scooted over on the bench to let Maya sit beside her. Still persistent on their friendship, Riley helped Maya with her bag, slipping it off of her shoulder and arm and placing it on the ground underneath the seat. "Are you still working on that painting?"

Maya finally sat down and nodded her head, running her right hand through her hair, gathering it and pushing the blonde locks out of her face. "Yeah. I wanted to get it done for the school art show in November."

Zay looked up from from his own tray of food, his spoon full of peas dropping onto a paper plate. "Well how big is that thing? You barely come and have lunch with us! But ya' know, it's a good thing you do, 'else you'd probably die from all the paint fumes in that room."

Maya's paint-covered fingers unwrapped the plastic from her egg salad sandwich and drove right in. She shoved the contents of her mouth into her cheek and spoke, mouth full of food, "Yeah, I wasn't actually gonna come, but I remembered that Lu—"

"Hey, sorry I'm late. Forgot my notes back in the Chem room." Lucas placed a hand on Riley's shoulder and leaned down for the traditional kiss on the cheek from his girlfriend. He then looked at Maya, a slight smile playing on his features. He squeezed between the two girls on the bench and took his seat, placing his text and notebook onto the wooden table. Lucas turned to his right where Maya was sitting, "You came." His expression was a mix between shocked and relieved. Maybe he didn't want to admit it to himself, but he liked the idea of seeing Maya more often, other than just Chemistry Class related.

"Kinda' had to if I planned on passing AP Chemistry." Maya rolled her eyes with a chuckle and grabbed her bag from under the lunch table, taking out her notebook. "You take better notes than I do in class and I need to copy yours before our test next week." The short blonde girl swiped the notebook that belonged to him into her hands and opened it to a random page. "I mean come on, seriously?" Maya held out the pages towards the group sitting around the table, flipping through its contents. "It's like he takes notes on literally everything Ms. Kreuger says."

Smackle, whom sat across from Maya, examined Lucas' notes. "Very impressive, Lucas Friar. I did not expect this from you at all. I am very proud." The inflections within her voice gave away a hint of flirtation towards the boy, her brows lifting up towards Lucas' direction with suggestion. Slowly, her lips widened into a grin as she shook her head, laughing slightly. "But unfortunately, your attempt to woo me and grab my attention is for naught. Farkle Minkus is the only man in my eyes."

Lucas raised his left eyebrow and nodded along with her as he reached for his notebook, shutting it on top of Maya's fingers. "Yeah, such a shame, Smackle." He turned his attention to Maya, taking his notes and placing it in her hands again, "And I have to take notes on everything she says if I want to pass. Obviously you should do the same if you're copying off of them."

Maya scoffed, "Why do that when you're already doing it for me?"

Zay pointed a finger at Maya, "She's smart. I like that."

"Thanks, Babineaux." Maya shoved Lucas' notebook into her bag. "Anyway," Maya stood up and swung her legs over the bench. She crouched low over her tray and put the rest of her lunch into her mouth, "I gotta get going. Just needed the notes, I'll see you guys later." The blonde picked up her tray, then her backpack and was about ready to leave when Lucas looked up at her from his seat on the bench.

"Hey, when do you think you'll be done with those?"

"Uhh…" Maya looked from him, to her messenger bag which contained the notebook in question, then to him again. "You know what, I'll figure it out. Do you have football practice today, Tex?"

Lucas sighed and rolled his eyes, ignoring the snickers and giggles coming from his friends at the table. "Yeah, I'll be done at 5:30."

"I'll get it back to you by then." With that, Maya took all her belongings and walked away from the lunch table.

After Zay finished his food, he slid his tray over to the side and placed his elbows on the table. "Alright, so you guys know that the homecoming game is comin' up, right?" He looked over to Lucas who was smiling and nodding along with him.

Riley, Smackle, and Farkle each stopped what they were doing, dropping spoons of food and textbooks, to look up Zay. Their eyes were wide, curious to where he was going with this.

When they didn't respond, he continued, "And since we're seniors, it's tradition that we get our friends to make posters for us and put 'em around the school…"

Riley, Smackle, and Farkle all nodded their heads in complete unison.

Zay rolled his eyes and placed his hands on the table, dramatically turning his head to look at each of his three friends individually, "So you guys mind doin' it?"

Riley laughed accompanied by smiles from Farkle and Smackle. "Of course we'll do it. I mean, we assumed that we would be doing it anyway." Her face lit up as she practically jumped in her seat, "Oh, I can ask Maya to help if she's not too busy with that painting!"

"Sounds like an excellent idea, Riley." Farkle threw an arm over Smackle's shoulders, pulling her tight against him. Smackle gave her own thumbs up of approval.

"Great," Riley closed her studying materials and slid them off the table and into her backpack. "It's settled, I'll ask Maya sometime today."

* * *

The last bell of the day rang and students were scurrying about the halls, eager to leave. Riley stopped by her locker to fetch her materials needed for Newspaper Club. Grabbing the appropriate binders, she closed her locker shut with a gentle hand and turned behind her to find two of her closest friends.

"Are you ready for Newspaper Club, Riley? Farkle and I thought that we would head over there together with you." Smackle had her own binder, neatly labeled "Newspaper Club," tucked in her arms against her chest. Behind her, Farkle stood with his chin rested on Smackle's.

Riley adjusted her bag upon her shoulder, turning her head towards the art room's direction down the hall. "You guys go on ahead. I wanted to bring up the poster thing to Maya."

"Okay. I hope Maya agrees, we all know that we are not the best artists." Farkle stood up straight and placed his hand into Smackle's, gently tugging her along towards the Newspaper club meeting room. "We'll see you inside."

Smackle gave a quick wave with her preoccupied hand before disappearing into the body of students.

Riley made her way to the art studio and stepped inside. The room was still filled with students who she assumed were all working on their projects for the art show. Clay sculptures, wooden pieces, drawings, and paintings were all over the place with students scurrying around for supplies. Riley found Maya doing the same for her painting in the far corner of the room. As Riley approached, Maya took a step back from the canvas she was working on, biting on her lower lip.

"Working hard?" Riley had her hands behind her back, leaning forward slightly to peer at both Maya and her painting. She was a little awkward, never really good at painting or drawing. Anything concerning visual arts, really.

Maya jumped slightly, eyes wide as she turned to Riley. It took a bit, but she finally smiled at the girl and gave her a shrug of her shoulders. "Still kind of wondering what I wanted to do. I've got a general idea in my head, nothing specific."

"Hmmmm," Riley stared at Maya's blank canvas and placed her hand on her chin as she thought. "I thought you were already working on something. You're always here during your lunch period, I figured you would be done soon."

Maya reached out for a large paintbrush and placed it in a mason jar of water. "Well, I was working on things and they were supposed to be for the show, but after I finished I didn't really like them."

Riley's brows lifted, "Can I see?"

"Sure," Maya pointed towards the tall wooden drying rack in front of them. "They're not all that great, so be warned." The short girl started picking out her paints from her artbox and laid them on a table beside her in color order.

Riley went to the old wooden structure, careful not to prick her finger on any of the loose nails. The drying rack wasn't much. It was just a bunch of 2x4s nailed together with random splotches of paint every where. Delicate long fingers took out a medium sized canvas, mindful that the paint may still be drying. Her eyes looked down at the painting and immediately went wide. "Wow, Maya. This is really good!"

Maya looked up from her task of organizing her paints and brushes towards Riley and the painting. "Ehh, thanks. I mean, I like it and all, I just don't really think it's art show worthy, you know?" She dropped her art tools and walked around the table to Riley, stuffing her hands in her pockets.

Riley's head turned from the painting, to Maya, then the painting again in disbelief. "Are you crazy?! Look at this!" Riley held the painting up by her waist. It was a portrait of a young boy with chubby cheeks, large dark brown eyes, and light brown hair that was kept shaggy around his face. It was painted with bold colors and darker shades. Riley looked back up at Maya, a small smile on her lips. "Is this your brother?"

Maya looked at Riley for a short second before shrugging her shoulders. "Yeah," she nodded her head a couple of times, "Kind of."

"Oh," Riley placed the painting back into the rack then pulled out another. "What about this one?" This painting was a stark difference from the one before. Everything was kept light, even the spacing within the painting was really open. It wasn't a portrait this time, instead it was a painting of a room. Shades of light blue and the use of gray for shadow was extremely prominent in this piece, especially to depict the walls of the room. There were chairs painted on the far wall, a muted shade of green, and a light brown almost khaki color used for the flooring.

"No." Maya shook her head vigorously. "That is the result of painting something just because I felt like I had to." She walked back over to her easel and sat down on the seat in front of it. "I just painted the first thing that came to mind, and that day it was a lobby of some place I had to go to after school."

"Hmm, well…" Riley followed Maya back to her empty canvas. "What's the general idea you have then."

"A place." Maya looked up at Riley from where she sat, a goofy grin on her face.

"Okay, what place?" Riley expected Maya to continue, and when she didn't she brought her eyes from the blank canvas to Maya. "Wait.. that's it? You want to paint a place…. But you don't know what place." It was Riley's turn to squint her eyes at Maya, raising one of her brows at the blonde girl.

"See, I knew you were smart." Maya laughed at her own joke then threw her hands up, frustrated. "I don't know, RIley. All I do know is that I want to paint a place or scenery. I've been really into landscapes for some reason."

"Okay well," Riley shifted her weight onto one foot, placing a hand on Maya's shoulder. "Why don't you paint a place that's special to you. Like somewhere you want to go? Maybe a city or a place in nature."

Maya nodded her head and repeated Riley's words. "A place that's special to me…"

The brunette girl nodded her head enthusiastically, feeling like she had helped Maya get somewhere with the idea of her art piece. "Yes! It could be a made up place, too, you know. Like when I close my eyes and I want to escape from everything, I always picture myself in a field of sunflowers. I've never really been to one, but I can imagine and just imagining the field just makes me feel… a little more happier."

"Thanks, Riley." Maya sighed in relief, finally finding more of a direction for her painting that she would showcase to the school in the art show. She started to squeeze some of the paint onto a palette from its tube, and did the same with another. It was a couple minutes until she realized that Riley was still there.

Riley was still standing beside Maya, her hands eagerly clasped together. She leaned her body into Maya's direction, swaying back and forth as if she were a small child asking a favor from their parents. "So, Maya…."

Maya let out a chuckle, amused at how Riley was acting. "Yes?"

"Lucas and Zay have their homecoming game coming up and it's kind of a tradition that their friends—and girlfriend of course—paint them posters and stuff to hang around the halls and school and make banners for the game and I was wondering if maybe…" Riley's voice trailed off. She was rambling again and hoped that Maya had understood where she was going with this, especially since she had run out of breath through all of that.

"If I could come help?" Maya laughed and placed her palette of paint into one hand, taking a brush in the other.

"Please!" At this point, Riley had her hands up by her face in a prayer like fashion.

"Sure."

"Yes! Friday after school? We could do it in the gym if you'd like! Smackle and Farke will join us, too and we could make the banners while the boys are at practice and after they're done we could all head over to my mom's shop!" Riley pulled out her planner from her bag, flipping to the end of the week.

"Can't do Friday. I have this thing after school. Saturday?"

"Saturday…" Riley paused and flipped the page on her planner. She had a pink note at a certain time slot. "Okay, well I have a date with Lucas and my parents around noon, but afterwards that sounds great! The school will probably be closed, but we could do it at my mom's anyway!"

Maya nodded, starting to mix the paints on her large palette. "Then Saturday it is. When will you be done with Lucas?"

"I'll get Farkle and Smackle to come to the bakery at 3. I'm sure Lucas and Zay wouldn't mind coming along, too. They probably won't be much help, but I bet they'd like to be included." Riley glanced at the small watch on her wrist then scrambled all of her belongings in her arms. "Yikes! Got to go, Maya. I'm late for Newspaper." She started to run towards the exit, waving a goodbye to Maya behind her. "Thanks again and I'll see you Saturday!"

* * *

A loud shrill whistle ran in a group of boys' ears. They all seemed used to it, not one of the teens flinched and instead were still in place. They were all gathered around a man with a clipboard and stopwatch in his hand. "Alright, boys. You did great last practice, but that does not mean we can start slacking. We've got a game against Martin Van Buren High next week. After that, the next big one is our Homecoming game against Queens Academy High." The coach paused for a second to allow a cheer from his team. "Now get to work."

The boys split up into separate sections, going off to do different drills. Twenty minutes in and Lucas and Zay were sitting on the grass with their feet in front of them, breathing heavily. Zay collapsed onto his back, shielding his eyes from the sun above them.

"So, I was thinkin'…" Zay began, speaking through his heavy intakes of breath

Lucas gave a lopsided grin and shook his head as he leaned forward to place his hands on his thighs, stretching out his legs. "Alright, I'll bite. What were you thinking, Zay?"

Zay continued to lay on his back. He ignored the whistles and shouts from the coach a couple of yards away. "You know how it's kinda' like a thing that we give our jerseys to our girls to wear for the homecoming game, right?"

Lucas nodded his head, bringing his knees up so that he could rest his arms on them. His seafoam eyes squinted in the sun as he looked at all of the other high school boys doing their drills. "Uhuh, our away jerseys."

"Well I was thinkin' of givin' mine to Maya." Zay finally took his arm away from his eyes, only to glance at Lucas to see his reaction.

Lucas made a face, raising a brow. He turned his head around to look at Zay still laying back. "Okay…" He was a little hesitant to answer.

Zay sat up, pulling at the fake grass as he did so. "You don't think it'd be weird?"

"Well," Lucas shrugged his shoulders. "Why Maya? Why not Smackle?"

Zay shook his head quickly. "Man, you know Smackle. She might see it as me hittin' on her. I mean, it's funny and all but I wouldn't do that. Plus everyone knows she and Minkus are dating. It'd be starting rumors if she wore it at the game with him there."

"True." Lucas nodded in agreement. "So you're not going to give the jersey to Smackle 'cause she might think you're hitting on her… so you're going to give it to Maya and hit on her?"

Zay swatted the air away from him in an exaggeration motion of 'no way'. "Nah, man. It's just to make her feel like she's a part of the squad! I mean.. But if I was gonna hit on her?" Zay flashed Lucas a smile. "Oh, hey," he added as an afterthought. "You give yours to Riles yet?"

"Nah, not yet." Lucas pursed his lips and made to stand up from the turf, noticing the coach's head turn towards their direction. He held out his hand for Zay to take up. "But if you and Maya were to date, don't you think it'd be a little messy if you broke up?"

Zay took Lucas' hand and dug the heels of his shoes into the ground, pulling himself up. He dusted his pants off. He then gave the taller boy an incredulous look and half a chuckle. "Really? Lucas, you're dating Riley. Farkle is dating Smackle. If any of you guys break up, don't you think that would be messy?"

Zay and Lucas walked towards a group of boys who were throwing the balls high up in the air to practice catching kick returns.

Lucas laughed and bent down to pick up a ball, bouncing it between his right and left hands. "Guess you're right."

Zay nodded and clapped a hand on Lucas' shoulder. "Of course I am. So…" Zay smiled, "You think I should go for it?"

Lucas rolled his eyes and forcefully pushed the ball into Zay's chest, causing a loud thud to come from the impact which elicited a cough from the other boy. "Well that hurt."

* * *

Lucas grabbed all of his belongings after practice and stood by the bleachers, taking his phone from his duffelbag. He looked up from the screen to wave goodbye to some of his teammates.

"Alright, man," Zay held out his hand towards Lucas. "I'm out. I'll see you tomorrow."

Lucas grabbed Zay's hand and brought him close to him, giving him a pat on the back. "Later."

Once Zay left, Lucas looked back at his phone. He checked the time, then checked his surroundings. A couple of students were lingering by the field, some cheerleaders, the guys from the football team, and some of their friends. Lucas sighed and pressed the call button on his phone. "Where is she?" He placed the phone against his ear, listening to the ringing tone until it went to voicemail.

"Hey, it's Maya Hart. You know what to do."

Lucas grunted in frustration. "Maya. Notes? Kinda' need those to study." He took the phone away from his ear and hung up. He paced back and forth around his backpack and duffel bag until he realized where he could easily find her.

Lucas would have smacked himself upside the back of his head if he could. Of course Maya would be in the art room. She practically lived there. He knocked on the metal divider that separated the rooms into sections, not wanting to startle her. She seemed so focused on her art. Compared to all the large wooden tables, the huge rolls of butcher paper, the blonde girl seemed so tiny sitting on a small metal stool with her back to him. "Maya?"

Just as she had almost set a brush to the canvas, Maya jumped in her seat and placed the paintbrush by her side. "Oh, crap. Hey, Lucas." She placed her paint brush down on the table next to her palette. "Sorry, I was super caught up in this project, I didn't realize what time it wa—" Maya stopped in her tracks, blinking hard. When she opened her eyes again, she bit on her lower lip and gave him a very apologetic look. "Fuck, your notes! My bad." The blonde girl grabbed a spare rag and wiped her paint covered hands before crouching over her bag. "Why didn't you call?!"

Lucas laughed and folded his arms over his chest, standing there amused. "I did."

"What?" Maya searched her body for her phone, finding it in her back pocket. She saw the missed call and cursed under her breath. "Shit. I am so sorry." She opened her bag and emptied out its contents: textbooks, two binders, loose pens and paper. Finally, she took out the correct notebook and stood back up, momentarily forgetting her mess that she created on the floor. She placed it on the table, flipping through it's pages. "Here, look. I'll just take a picture of the notes so I can copy them la—"

Lucas cut her off by reaching for his notebook. Her eyes followed his hands, staring at the notebook as he placed it in his backpack. He couldn't help but smile at her reaction.

"Oh come on, Ranger Rick! I know I said I would get it to you and that you needed them, but that is not cool." Maya pouted her lips, glaring at him through her lashes. She was so much shorter than he was and she refused to acknowledge that by looking up at him.

Lucas laughed and crouched low to pick up her messenger bag. "Pack up."

Maya scrunched her brows together, confused. "Excuse me?"

The dirty blonde haired boy smiled down at her, a grin on his lips. "Pack up. I'm starving and if you've been here the whole time you're probably hungry too. You can copy my notes over dinner." He motioned over to her painting. "Plus, it's just a black canvas right now. You can work on it tomorrow."

Maya looked at Lucas biting the inside of her cheek as she looked to be contemplating his offer. For a moment, her eyes glanced at the canvas. It was black, plain black. After her talk with Riley, she struggled on finally picking the place she wanted to paint. When she decided, all she had managed to do until Lucas had found her was paint the white empty canvas black.. "Fine."

After Maya cleaned up her station and gathered her belongings, they stopped her locker to put away her artbox. Once she closed the clock on the metal contraption and spun the dial for good measure. She picked her bag off the floor and put the strap across her shoulders. "So, where to?"

Lucas began to walk down the hall, Maya following beside him. "Well, I know this nice place that has the best burgers."

Maya nodded her head, grabbing onto the strap of her bag with a huge grin. She faced forward, her eyes on the double doors that would lead towards the front of the school "Burgers? Always down for burgers."

Lucas led her to his truck, opening the passenger door for her. He took his bag and swung it over the back, placing it in the bed. He turned around with his hand out, offering to put Maya's in the back as well. He found her stood at the curb, an amused smirk on her face. He was confused. "What?"

The girl let out a laugh and shook her head, giving her bag to him. "Nothing. It's just… your truck!"

Lucas placed her bag in the back and waited for her to climb into the passenger seat. Once she had done so, he shut the door behind her then jogged around the front of the vehicle and got into his driver's seat. "Yeah, what about my truck?" He placed the key into the ignition and started the engine, pulling out of his parking spot.

"You're actually from Texas." Maya laughed again, tossing her hair over her shoulder to get it out of her face as her whole body shook with laughter.

Lucas laughed along with her, his own shoulders shaking. He kept his eyes on the road, placing his left arm against the door, the window was open, and his right hand on the large steering wheel. "I am. Am I fulfilling every Texas stereotype you've got in your head?"

Maya nodded, turning her head to face him. She tilted her head to the side slightly, a sign the show she was impressed. "Almost all of them. Now I just need to see you in a cowboy hat and some cowboy boots and I would be set for the rest of my life!"

Lucas shook his head and pulled into a parking lot. "Yeah, no way. That's never happening." He turned off the car and got out. This time, he saw Maya get out on her own. He found it entertaining as he watched her jump down from the car, about two feet above the ground. She slammed the door with some force behind it, but it barely made a noise. She then stood on the very tips of her shoes to grab her messenger bag and his own backpack from the bed of the truck before she finally joined him.

"Never say never, sundance." Maya smiled up at him and handing him his backpack before pulling the door to the diner open.

The two were seated in a booth shaped in a half circle. As soon as they got situated and after they ordered, they pulled out their notebooks. Lucas handed his over, already turned to the right pages. Maya went to work on scribbling down the notes as soon as possible, her hunger fueling her need to finish. As if it were planned, she wrote down the last word as the waitress placed her food on the table in front of her.

Lucas rubbed his hands together, ready to dig in. "This is my favorite place to get burgers. I usually come here with the guys after a game."

Maya was already on the third bite of her burger the next time he looked up at her. She took the napkin and dabbed at her mouth, cleaning it of any food crumbs or condiments. "So, Riley asked me to help out with the homecoming posters."

"Oh yeah?" Lucas took a bite of his own burger then placed it down on the plate.

The girl nodded next to him. "Yeah, I think we're meeting up saturday after your date."

Lucas leaned back in the booth, placing his arms over the cushioned seats. "Well I hope you said yes. Riley's drawing skills are limited to yellow suns in the corner of her notes, dotting her i's with hearts, and flowers. Also, if i'm being honest, I don't think I've ever seen Farkle or Smackle draw anything other than triangles or graphs… or anything non science or math related."

Maya gave a sigh, pursing her lips together. "So I'm in for a rough time, huh?"

Lucas nodded. "Oh yeah."

"So anyway."

"Anyway?" Lucas raised a brow at her.

"What are you doing after high school?" Maya stuffed a couple fires into her mouth after dipping them in a mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise.

"After high school…" Lucas' voice trailed off as he wiped his hands on a napkin, averting his eyes from her down to his plate with brows raised. He cleared his throat, a little caught off guard, before he started up again. "Well, I have some scouts coming to see me sometime this year during a game from NYU. My parents are really pushing me towards a football scholarship."

Maya nodded and when she didn't say anything, he went on.

"My dad wants me to take over his spot at the company he works at over in the city." Lucas grabbed a fry on the side of plate and started to play with his food absent mindedly.

"What's he do?" Maya continued to eat as she spoke.

"He's a stock administration manager," His intonation went up towards the end of his statement, making it sound more like a question. He doubted that she knew what it was, not many people did.

Maya scrunched her face in confusion. "A who-what now?"

Lucas laughed nervously and placed the fry into his mouth. He paused to chew before speaking up, "He's in charge of his company's finances and makes sure numbers are right and stuff about official papers."

Maya raised her brows at him. "Yikes, that sounds… boring, but hey. I mean, if you're into it. I bet it pays big money, though."

Lucas nodded his head again, "Yeah, it does. I think that's why he wants me to take over. He wants to make sure I'm taken care of or something like that. What about you, though? What are you doing after high school."

"Uhhh," Maya shrugged her shoulders, dropping her fries back onto her plate. She propped her shoulders onto the table, laced her fingers together to form a bridge that her chin rested upon. "I haven't really thought much about after high school."

"Oh," Lucas was quick to straighten up in his seat. He felt like he had overstepped his boundaries. "Well, you don't have to know what you're going to do. It's normal for people to take a year off of to just figure things out."

The girl seated perpendicular to him nodded her head weakly. "Yeah. Well, if things work out, ideally I would want to study abroad. I really want to go to Florence for all the art. I want to surround myself with inspiration that I can find through the art of others, whether it be the art I find in museums or the architecture, even the way of living there."

Lucas found himself smiling as she went on.

"I mean, have you googled the place? Everything is so incredibly stunning. If I were to go, I'd want to take the train to Cinque Terre. It's an absolutely beautiful group of towns just along the coastline. All the houses are painted vibrant colors and they're all on these terraces by the water. It's like this place you could only imagine, but it's an actual place. Like.. it exists. It's crazy." Maya had been staring off into space, lost in her own little world as she described her dream vacation destination, no doubt visualizing what she had just explained to him.

Lucas was absolutely oblivious to the smirk playing on his lips. He always found it really interesting to hear about people's ambitions. The person could be talking about the color green, but if that person felt so strongly about green, it made Lucas feel compelled to listen. This particular time, not only was he absolutely fascinated, but he was mesmerized by how passionate Maya had been talking about a place he hadn't even heard before. The admire the way her eyes lit up as she spoke, the way her lips gave a kind of smile that he'd never seen from her before. It was a small smile, but so genuine. "It sounds like a beautiful place to see."

Maya absent-mindedly nodded. It took her a minute to realize that she had just gone full out art-geek mode. A blush crept onto her cheeks, clearly embarrassed at how easily she slipped into day dreaming. "My bad. I just really like art, I guess."

Lucas shook his head, "There's nothing to be sorry about."

Maya raised a brow at him, picking at her fries again. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Lucas cleared his throat, taking his eyes away from her and going back to his food. "Like what?" He wiped the grin off his face.

From the corner of his eye, he could still see Maya watching his every move. "Like a kid on Christmas morning when they find out they got the puppy they asked Santa for."

"You're…" Lucas took a moment, trying to find the words to give her. Under the table, he wiped his palms on the fabric of basketball shorts that he had changed into after practice. "...Interesting."

Maya looked at him, her facial expression changing to something akin to confusion. "Thanks… I think." Maya smiled and shook her head at him, picking up her burger again.

"Anytime."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** So I want to thank everyone that's stuck with me this far. My updates are sporadic. Life, you know? Anyway, I want to address everyone that's been guessing in the reviews. I want to say that all of you guys are correct in your assumptions. I'm not completely sure if I want to go where the original goes, but I did mention in the first chapter the genre of this story, but who knows maybe it'll change! However, if I do follow the original, I already have a plan to make another story as a company piece to this one. :)

As always, let me know what you think. Loved it? Hated it? Too slow for you? :) Hope to see you here next time!


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